There's a payoff for all the scrutiny Greenwood Public Schools' students and teachers have been under since new federal and state testing standards went public last month.
It's called fall break.
Schools in the district will be closed all next week. This is the first time the district's school year calendar has included an extended break in the fall. Superintendent Les Daniels said the vacation is needed more than ever.
"It's pretty stressful at the beginning of the year with test scores, and we've been working them really hard trying to get them right where they were wrong," Daniels said. "So we thought we would give them a break."
To squeeze fall break into the traditional schedule, the district tacked on a few days to the end of the school year.
"We'll still get in our 180 days," Daniels said.
