Extra snow days push back last day of school
Superintendent Matt D’Andrea added his snow day address to the 48 hour businesses section of the Thursday, March 6 School Committee meeting. Photo by Brandy Muz
Superintendent Matt D’Andrea added his snow day address to the 48 hour businesses section of the Thursday, March 6 School Committee meeting. Photo by Brandy Muz
Wareham Public Schools are allotted five snow days per school year. Due to recent blizzards and inclement weather, the district has used seven.
With meetings and waivers from the state, the district will make Good Friday, April 3 an “early release day.” The last day of school as result, will be on Friday, June 26, one day later than the original date in the school calendar.
In a meeting Wednesday, March 4 the Massachusetts Department of Education told superintendents across the state that districts could apply to waive school days that went past June 26. With the added snow days, Wareham was slated to have its last day of school Monday, June 29.
Superintendent Matt D’Andrea said at the Thursday, March 5 School Committee meeting that the district qualified to move the last day to Friday. But to achieve that, former days off during the remainder of the year had to be made school days.
“In order to apply for the waiver we must first utilize any full day professional development days that we have between now and the end of the year and use them as a school day,” he said. “Well, we don't have any. So we can't do that.”
The department recommended that districts make Good Friday a full or early dismissal day if there were no professional development days remaining.
D’Andrea said the push for early dismissal was to accommodate those who do observe Good Friday. There was also issues raised in making students come back for one day following a weekend.
According to D’Andrea, the district did not qualify for any more days taken off the end of the year. However, if any more school cancelations were to occur the schools could apply for more waivers.
“It sets us up— if we do need to apply for a waiver we've used that day as required," he said.
As Good Friday is less than a month away, D’Andrea said the district wanted to bring the vote in front of the board to let families make arrangements “as soon as possible.”
The times of the early dismissal are currently being decided and will be announced by the district.
