Schools
Sandy, Impending Winter Forces Nazareth to Shuffle Makeup Days
If needed, Nazareth's superintendent proposed using two possible holidays as snow makeup days: Martin Luther King Day on Monday, Jan. 21 and Presidents Day on Monday, Feb. 18.
Five makeup days already built into Nazareth schools’ January through June calendar will be used for the five days that Hurricane Sandy closed schools, superintendent Dennis Riker announced Monday night.
But the school board still has to decide what makeup days to pick if treacherous winter weather forces schools to close.
Riker proposed using two possible holidays as snow makeup days: Martin Luther King Day on Monday, Jan. 21 and Presidents Day on Monday, Feb. 18.
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The board took no action on Riker’s proposal. In fact, Riker asked the board for its input and said he and the board will discuss the snow days proposal at a December board meeting.
The five makeup days built into the calendar are Monday and Tuesday, March 25 and 26; Friday, May 24, and Monday and Tuesday, June 10 and 11.
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Putting the makeup days in context, Easter is March 31 and students had been scheduled to be off Monday through Friday, March 25-29, and Monday, April 1. Memorial Day is Monday, May 27. June 10 was scheduled to be the last day of the school year for teachers and June 11 was designated as makeup day five.
Several board members commented about the scheduling issue.
Robert Pinel said he would want to avoid using the Dr. King and Presidents holidays for snow makeup. Darrell Crook said he was not sold on using the holidays for snow makeup but believes it’s better to schedule makeup days in the midst of the school year rather than tacking them onto the end of the year.
Board vice president Linda McDonald said she has heard that Gov. Tom Corbett could possibly issue a waiver on the required 180-day length of the school year.
Riker acknowledged hearing that as well but expressed a full-steam-ahead attitude about makeup scheduling.
”If we need to be here 180 days, we need to be here 180 days,” he said.
Tim Eller, spokesman for the state Department of Education, said in an Express-Times article earlier this month it was far too early in the school year to make any decisions on whether school districts will get a break from the 180-day requirement.
Meanwhile, board member Maurice Heller -- the board’s representative on the Career Institute of Technology board -- pointed out that the Forks Township facility lost seven days to Hurricane Sandy.
Riker said Dr. Ronald Roth, CIT’s administrative director, is trying to work out a makeup schedule.