Decision Nears on School Make-up Days
With the unprecedented closure of the Huntington School District for one week due to superstorm Sandy, school officials are deciding how the lost instructional days should be made up.
The district built two snow days into its 2012/13 schedule. Huntington schools will now be open on Friday, May 24 and Monday, March 25. How the other lost days will be made up is still undecided.
New York State education law requires districts to be in session for a minimum of 180 days. Unless the State Legislature acts to waive or reduce the requirement, districts will need to eliminate some scheduled vacation time.
There is no mechanism in the law that requires 180 days of instruction for a reduction in the mandate. Neither districts nor the State Education Department can act on their own. Only the State Legislature can alter the requirement.
The law states that once districts use up all of their snow days, they must then exhaust their vacation time before SED commissioner John King could even consider granting a waiver of 1-5 days from the 180-day mandate.
Since the start of winter is still more than a full month away, districts are concerned that they could be closed for even more days due to ice or snow storms or a another loss of power.