Three Snow Days Given Back to District

Despite because of power outages after the October snowstorm and other small incidents, the district has not used any snow days throughout the dead of winter—and so the board of education opted to change the calendar again Tuesday to give back unused snow days.

Because of unused days, the board of education unanimously decided to give back April 9, May 29 and May 30, which means students will not attend school on those days.

"I never thought I would be sitting here talking about giving back days because we were hit so hard in October, and I thought that was the beginning of the end," said Superintendent of Schools Michael Schilder. "But I think it is likely now that we will not use more snow days."

The , Schilder said, determined that the district would give back May 18, May 21 and May 29. But, he said, there is a conflict because of the NJASK schedule.

"So we revised the contract and came up with May 24, May 25 and May 29," he said. "But there is a conflict with the middle school Hershey trip because they already signed a contract."

But, Schilder said, the biggest problem lies with , and , all of which already used up many of their snow days after power outages earlier in the year. Those three schools only have the opportunity to have two give back days instead of three.

In the plan approved by the board, Schilder said, those three schools will still have to attend school on May 30—and in return, they will not have to extend their school year to June 20, as was previously approved.

"They attend school on May 30 like they were planning to anyway, and then they don't need to attend June 20," he said. "If we are willing to take the risk of no snow in March, we like that proposal."

Many other board members liked this proposal as well, particularly because it means the day columnly referred to as Easter Monday is a day off and spring break is extended by one day.

"I have heard from several parents that they like having Easter Monday off," said board of education president Evan Lerner.

If there is any late snowfall in March, all of the schools—except Eisenhower, Van Holten and Hamilton—will still have two give back days left. As snow days are needed at this point, the days off will be taken away, beginning with May 30 and moving forward.

The three exception schools will always have one fewer give back day than the rest of the district.

The board unanimously approved the calendar change.