School calendar revised
By DAN MORIARTY
Staff Writer
WESTFIELD – The School Committee voted Monday to revise the school calendar for the second time this year. Part of that revision will make Good Friday, April 6, a school holiday.
The board voted in November to revise the calendar because of the storm-related cancellations.
The School Committee voted, at its Nov. 14 session, to push back the scheduled end of the school year from Tuesday, June 19, to Wednesday, June 20, to account for the six days already lost to weather cancellations and added several half day sessions.
The original schedule provided for five emergency (snow) days, a number exceeded this year because of weather events.
Those cancellations include Monday, Aug. 29, the scheduled opening of schools within the district, due to flooding caused by Tropical Storm Irene, and the week of Oct. 31 through Nov. 4, due to the snow storm that caused widespread power outages in the city and throughout the Northeast.
The timing of weather cancellations was a factor in scheduling that calendar because state law requires the school year calendar be 180 days. However, the district can seek a waiver from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education for cancellations which occur after Jan. 21.
The school board approved a motion to slate two half-day sessions to create additional snow days, changing the Feb. 7 professional development in-service day, which students have off, to a school day and making Good Friday, a scheduled holiday, a half-day session.
Superintendent Suzanne Scallion presented another calendar revision to the School Committee Monday night.
“We’ve used only one snow day (since the October storm) and we recaptured four days, so we have three (snow) days left,” she said. “Mother Nature has been very kind to us.”
“We made Good Friday a half day, now it will be a day off,” she said. “The last day of school will still be June 20.”
The board voted 6-0 to accept the second calendar revision.
Dan Moriarty can be reached at [email protected]
