As the wiggle room for preserving a family plan-friendly academic calendar fades with each successive snow storm, the Board of Education on Monday night voted unanimously to reduce the number of student instructional days for this academic year from 182 to 181.
Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi advised the school board to do so, rather than push back the last day of school for students from Friday, June 22 to Monday, June 25. The March 13 school cancellation—the sixth of the year—pushed the Board of Ed into a position where the district was in conflict with its own policy on the last day of school. By policy, that last day can be no later than the third full week in June—in this year’s calendar, that’s Friday, June 22.
Yet with the cancellations, that date now represents the 181st day of school for students.
“My recommendation is that the Board of Ed reduce the number of student days with the understanding that our staff would still be 182 days, so that [Monday, June 25] would turn into a professional learning day for staff,” Luizzi said during the meeting, held in the Wagner Room at New Canaan High School.
“If we were to have another day, there could be another discussion around going to 180 days. Believe it or not, according to my weather update this morning, if we have a storm on Wednesday and they are anticipating we will, it may not be the last storm of the year, and there are one or two more storms in the making we don’t know about. So it’s going to be a ‘stay tuned’ thing.”
The Board of Ed voted 9-0 to make the change, preserving June 22 as the last day of school. Those voting included Brendan Hayes, Maria Naughton, Sheri West, Vice Chair Penny Rashin, Chair Dionna Carlson, Secretary Jennifer Richardson, Tom Cronin, Katrina Parkhill and Hazel Hobbs.
In the past, Luizzi said, when New Canaan Public Schools has been forced to reduce the number of student instructional days by two, to the state-mandated 180 days, “then the days would come from April vacation.”
April vacation this year is scheduled for the week of April 9 (students also are not in school on the prior Friday, a professional learning day for staff).
If the Board of Ed needs to eat into April break, Luizzi said—“I hesitate to do so unless we absolutely have to, because I do think families have plans,” he said—then it would come from the beginning of that week (starting on Monday, and then moving to Tuesday and so on).
One nuance of Wednesday’s expected storm is that that’s the statewide SAT day for juniors. That can go forward with a 90-minute delay for students, Luizzi said, but anything longer would mean it has to be made up on April 24 or 25.
Luizzi added that the Board of Ed cannot, by state law, set its graduation date until after April 1.
If nothing else changes, then the 180th day of student instruction would be Thursday, June 21, he said, “and we would look at graduation there, and then June 22nd, Friday, would be a makeup day.”
“But that’s if nothing else changes,” he said.
Carlson said, “So the message is: Don’t make your plans yet.”