It's been a rough winter in Towns County, the Georgia mountain county that sits along the Tennessee line. Prior to last week's epic snowstorm, which crippled much of north Georgia for much of the week, the Towns County school system had already lost four days of classes from snowstorms prior to Christmas.
It lost another five days last week. When the snow started to melt last weekend, Towns County residents were ready for school, says Carolyn Smith, the grandmother of a second grader.
"Played in the snow, made snowmen... my granddaughter was ready" to return to school, said Smith.
Like other school systems across America, the Towns County school system calendar originally showed this as a day off for the King holiday. But because the school system is nine days in the hole with snow days, the school system decided to hold classes on the King holiday and three other scheduled holidays.
"It's been difficult," said Superintendent Richard Behrens. The Towns County system had already shortened its winter break and cancelled Presidents Day. Adjusting the King Holiday, he says, also made sense.
"It was simple math. We were just running out of days," said Behrens.
Towns was among several north Georgia communities that had made plans to hold classes on the King holiday to make up for lost classroom time. They drew the ire of Georgia's NAACP president Edward DuBose, who argued that "to substitute the legacy of what Dr. King stood for, to reduce it to an inclement weather day, is unacceptable."
"We mean no ill will to anyone. We're just trying to do the best we can for our children," said Behrens.
Because of last week, Towns County has to find even more spots on the calendar to make up for classroom time lost to snow.