Students Will Go to School on MLK Day, Presidents' Day

Jefferson students will make up the lost days from Hurricane Sandy by attending school on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents' Day, and the Friday of spring break on April 5.

Students will have shortened days on Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Jan. 21 and on Presidents' Day on Feb. 18, according to a recommendation presented by District Superintendent Joeseph Kraemer at Monday night's BOE meeting. On April 5, he said students will have a full instructional day.

Kraemer said there were five extra days built into the school calendar this year to use for snow days. The storm used eight of those days, so the board had to come up with a way to make up the extra three days.

He said he met with the administration, the PTA, PTEA, BOE committee and various school organizations to figure out the best solution for where to add on the days.

The two added days in January and February will be half days. Kraemer said it will be determinned if they are early dismissals or delayed openings once transportation does an assessment of the bus schedules. He anticipates the decision to be made sometime soon.

He noted that the AM and PM kindergarten classes must also meet 180 days, so the district needs to balance out those days to make sure the students can meet the requirement as well.

Kraemer said the third day on April 5 was already built into the district calendar as a day for make-up if all snow days were used. The decision was to either use the last week of June or spring break.

April 5 is the Friday of spring break, and if more snow days are needed until then, students would have to go into school for more days during that break. The next day students would go in would be Thursday, April 4, and would continue if more days are needed. 

Kraemer said he decided to go with April instead of June because of the hot temperatures in the school building at the end of the year, and also the need for more instructional time before testing.

"I need curriculum taught before state testing, and before the AP exams," he said. "By starting off the end of June, that's after the fact."