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MONTROSE, N.Y. – In order to avoid cutting into scheduled vacation time, Hendrick Hudson School District officials tried to open all of the schools on a two-hour delay Friday. But Mother Nature didn’t allow it, said Interim Superintendent Brian Monahan.
“We have used all of our snow days like everybody else,” Monahan said. “That’s why we tried a two-hour delay but the weather didn’t cooperate.”
With Hurricane Sandy canceling classes in the Hendrick Hudson School District for one week, the district resorted to using delayed openings and early closings to avoid using further inclement weather days that could eat into vacation time. Friday morning's snowstorm proved too dangerous for driving and the district was forced to use another snow day. As a result, the previously scheduled vacation day of Thursday, March 28 will now be a school day, Monahan said. The district previously changed Monday, April 1 into a school day.
“As I walked around the different schools (Thursday) people begged me to get school open (Friday),” Monahan said. “Some of the other days we lost were days around the edges, but now we’re losing one in the middle of the week. It’s going to be a real inconvenience for many students and parents.”
The state mandates schools be in session for 180 days and if a school fails to comply with the measure, the school faces a loss of state aid. The state did provide an exemption last school year because of the damage done by Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee. Monahan isn’t so sure the same will happen this year.
“We are hopeful but not optimistic,” he said. “Usually (an exemption) does not happen until all of your possible vacation days are used so it’s really not likely. Now some of the days we’re losing have religious significance for some people so it’s obviously troubling. We’re hoping this is the last time we’ll need to do this.”
For attendance purposes, delayed openings count as full school days, and don't count against the mandatory 180-day rule. Any more emergency days would need to be made up on Wednesday, March 27.
Comments (14)
Informed guy you are wrong because several schools have done so. However it no longer matters because Hen Hud has solved the problem and will now be closed that week. Amazing what can be done when one tries to look for alternatives.
Parents got a letter from Dr. Monahan explaining that the schools would be closed for the week.
This is why my name is InformedGuy. You can't just "add" another day on at the end of the school year. There are state tests, graduations and the like that all have to be planned and thought out months in advance. When the school published its calendar, it clearly lists ALL the potential make up days and the order in which they will be used.
What message does it send your children when you shirk the rules and do what you want anyway? Families, teachers and staff are repeatedly urged not to make concrete plans for those days for this exact reason.
Well it seems they found a way to avoid the problem, as of sometime this afternoon. "Schools will be closed from Monday, March 25 through Friday, March 29. Schools will be open on Monday, April 1.
This schedule preserves the week-long spring break about which many of you were concerned for personal and religious reasons. We have been able to accomplish that by realigning staff development time. "
Good point a_fury...I still would have just added a day at the end of the school year like many other school districts have announced doing. Either way my children won't be attending school on that Thursday.
It makes sense if you remember that Passover starts Monday, and that Good Friday is at the end of the week.
And by the way informed guy some people make vacation plans months and months in advance. No one is questioning that the school has to have the required number of days in but there were other days they could have considered then smack in the middle of the week, including extending the school year by one day.
And by the way informed guy some people make vacation plans months and months in advance. No one is questioning that the school has to have the required number of days in but there were other days they could have considered then smack in the middle of the week, including extending the school year by one day.
Sorry informedGuy, in our case I beg to differ. We already did not have a week off in February (the other feasible time for college visits) so made plans to do it during Spring break. There's no other feasible time that colleges would actually be in session. And given that the amount of "teaching" that is going to take place that day is nearly negligible, I'm not going to cut short our visits so that he can attend on that one day. I understand why the school had to do what they did, but it doesn't mean I have to go along with it. And I would hardly expect parents who have a yearly vacation that week to consciously plan to not go on vacation given some "possible" loss of a day or two then. We were *this close* to not losing the day.
College visits are an important part of the college selection process. No one would fault you for taking you child on one. Family vacations though, that is another story.
For any parent that went ahead and made of kept vacation plans for that week shame on you. The calendar and the requisite make-up days are published well over a year in advance. To think that vacations would stay the same after nearly all the snow days were used up in the first week in November is ignorant. Look at the writing on the wall. Schools have to do what the need to do. Vacations and family trips are secondary to academics.
Well we for one won't be sending our son to school. That week is a traditional (and often only feasible) time to do college visits for Juniors, and we'll be in New England doing just that.
Agree this is the stupidest decision I've ever heard. The only people who will be on school that Thursday are the teachers and administrators. They couldn't extend the school year one day or make the school day Monday? I just don't get it.
Why on earth would they pick a day smack in the middle of the vacation? Not only does this NOT make sense but it forces families to change plans with only a few weeks notice.