TONY STINNETT, Courier Co-Editor
Friday, January 14, 2011 11:47 am

Cannon County Schools have used 8 or its 11 built in snow days already this year.

An already rough winter weather-wise has forced Cannon County Schools to use eight of its 11 built-in snow days, including five last week, but not having enough days in the calendar is not the concern, according to Director of Schools Barbara Parker.

The days are there.

"We have several days in the calender that we could use to make up snow days if we had to do that," Parker said. "You don't want to have to do that, but we could. You do start to get a little cautious (when the built-in days are almost diminished) but there is just no way all the students could get to their schools (last week)."

Although dates are available to assure all required school days are fulfilled, time still is of the essence in regard to TCAP testing. Parker said lost instruction time due to the inclement weather is the bigger headache.

"We want as many days as possible before TCAP testing and this cuts into that," Parker said. "You become concerned with missing so many days of instruction."

TCAP testing takes place April 12-19.

The Cannon County Spelling Bee has been moved to Feb. 3 at East Side Elementary at 6 p.m.