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Fairfield's High School Graduations Set For June 20

FAIRFIELD, Conn. – Seniors at Fairfield Warde and Fairfield Ludlowe will finish school a full week before underclassmen this June. The graduation date for 2013 is now June 20.

Graduations at Fairfield Warde and Fairfield Ludlowe are now scheduled for a week prior to the last day of school in the rest of the district.

Graduations at Fairfield Warde and Fairfield Ludlowe are now scheduled for a week prior to the last day of school in the rest of the district.

Photo Credit: File

Fairfield’s Board of Education decided to move up the graduation date from its usual time on the last day of school at its meeting Tuesday night. The last day for the rest of Fairfield Public Schools’ students is Thursday, June 27.

Fairifeld Ludlowe Headmaster Greg Hatzis and Fairfield Warde Headmaster James Coyne asked the board to keep with its normal scheduled and hold graduations on the last day of school. The two explained that moving up the graduation ceremony would create potential scheduling conflicts at the high schools.

Senior finals will now run two full weeks before the rest of the school’s exams start, while underclassmen classes are still in session. The schedule would make it difficult to arrange rooms for senior exams, find proctors and to have teachers visit their seniors during exams, Hatzis explained.

“Either way, obviously we’ll make it work,” Coyne said. “But the one we think is least disruptive and more educationally sound is what we’re recommending.”

Fairfield has to make up 10 days this June because of Hurricane Sandy and four snow days. Because of the unusual circumstances a group of school board members decided to move the graduation date.

The move was designed to allow seniors to finish school closer to the originally planned end date, to help in cases when recent graduates have college orientations or summer programs that might conflict with the last week of school.

“This is something many members of the public have asked for, with very valid reasons,” Board of Education member Jennifer Maxon Kennelly said Tuesday.

The school board decided on June 20 as the town’s graduation date by a 5-4 vote. But that is technically not the last day of school for seniors at Fairfield Warde and Fairfield Ludlowe, Superintendent David Title said.

By state law, public schools must offer 180 days of instruction for its students. Towns can hold graduation ceremonies with fewer days than that in a year, but they must hold classes for those students, even if most will be absent.

“I can’t imagine they’re actually going to appear,” Title said. “It’s a technical point.”

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