ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. – To make up for one of the days students missed when two hurricanes shut down schools in Northeast Florida in recent weeks, the St. Johns County School District is having students come to school on Veterans Day, the district announced on Wednesday.
“Hurricanes Helene and Milton caused your children to miss five days of instruction,” the district said in a note to parents. “We have determined that three of these days will need to be made up. The first hurricane make-up day will be Veterans Day on Monday, November 11.”
Recommended Videos
Students were originally scheduled to be off that day.
A district spokesperson told News4JAX on Thursday that it’s a good opportunity to hone in on Veterans Day activities and curriculum.
The district said it is working with schools to put an emphasis on ways to celebrate and honor veterans. It’s also not the first time the district had to add Veterans Day as a makeup day and it still has other days to consider.
Veterans Day is a federal holiday in the United States and is observed annually on Nov. 11 to honor military veterans of the United States Armed Forces.
According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, World War I – known at the time as “The Great War” – officially ended when the Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919, in the Palace of Versailles outside the town of Versailles, France. However, fighting ceased seven months earlier when an armistice, or temporary cessation of hostilities, between the Allied nations and Germany went into effect on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. For that reason, November 11, 1918, is generally regarded as the end of “the war to end all wars.”
The district said additional make-up time will be relayed soon.