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District outlines hurricane response: power restored to nearly all schools, district to seek legislative waiver for missed days
Summary
Greenville County Schools administrators told the committee that nearly all facilities have power and Internet restored after the hurricane, meal service for about 85,000 students has been reestablished, buses are running revised routes and the district will seek legislative forgiveness for missed instructional days.
Greenville County Schools administrators described a large-scale recovery operation after a hurricane that knocked out power at nearly every facility and disrupted classes and transportation.
At a committee of the whole meeting, Dr. Royster presented the administration’s report on response and recovery. He said district teams assessed 105 active school locations, cataloged hundreds of road and access problems and worked to restore kitchen operations after widespread power outage. “We reordered and restocked all our kitchens to serve 85,000 daily meals,” Dr. Royster said.
The administration assembled 145 two-person field teams to drive more than 9,000 route miles and identify access issues for buses. Staff cataloged roughly 549 problem areas and prioritized repairs and debris clearance before resuming normal routes. Dr. Royster said modified bus routes were in place and drivers were running those routes during daylight to confirm safety.
The district also reported operational fixes to heating, ventilation and air‑conditioning systems and generator troubleshooting at affected sites. Hillcrest High School was used as a Red Cross shelter and required an HVAC motor replacement while serving the community, the district said.
On academic impacts, the administration said no in‑person or e‑learning instruction was possible from the 30th through the 8th because outages were too widespread. The board was told the district has extended the end of the first quarter to Oct. 21 to add five instructional days and that the administration plans to seek legislative forgiveness for the days lost because of the storm. “Our intent would be to seek a waiver for those days because of the broad, deep, and significant impact of this event,” Dr. Royster said.
Board members asked how the district will identify and support students displaced by storm damage. Dr. Royster said principals will be asked to proactively reach out to students who do not return in the first three days and that the district will coordinate with community nonprofits to meet family needs.
Administration staff said they began tracking all storm work for FEMA reimbursement and have engaged an experienced former finance director to compile claims and forms. The district cautioned that FEMA processing can take many months.
The administration also addressed employee pay and make‑up time: hourly nonexempt employees will be paid for work and may make up missed time through training or extra duties; salaried exempt employees are not eligible for overtime. The district said most employees were being paid on the normal schedule while completing recovery tasks.
Next steps the district listed for the coming weeks included continued cleanup and repairs, completing detailed facility assessments, communicating temporary bus stop locations to families, and preparing complete documentation for potential FEMA reimbursement. The administration said final restoration and campus cleanup will continue for several weeks.
