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EASTON, Conn. If this winter is anything like last winter, April vacation for Easton students may not happen.
In a letter to parents, superintendent of schools Bernard Josefsberg said, The snow may be receding but the disruptions from last weekends storm continue. Assuming a reopening in Redding this coming Monday, Joel Barlow and the Redding schools must make up eight days lost to date. Easton and Redding students attend Joel Barlow High School.
After Joel Barlow was closed for a week because of the power outages and unsafe road conditions caused by a brief but intense October snowstorm, high school students must make up eight days of missed school. The lower schools in Easton need to make up only five lost days because classes went back into session Wednesday.
This has been a tough school year so far for Easton. Several days of school were missed in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Irene and even more were missed after this rare and unusual October snowstorm. Josefsberg said parents need to prepare for additional closings once winter actually comes, which could mean canceling April vacation and possibly February vacation as well.
In the letter, the superintendent said that because of the large number of school cancellations that occurred last year due to snow, the Region 9 Tri-Board adopted several protocols for this year:
1. If needed, additional days will be added to the end of the school year for emergency closings up to and including Friday, June 22.
According to Josefsberg, Region 9 [Joel Barlow] and the Redding schools have already used up that additional week. Easton schools have only used four of those five days that week.
2. Should more days be needed, they will be taken away from the April 16 to 20 break, beginning with April 16.
As of today, the Redding Schools [including Joel Barlow High School] will be in session on Monday, April 16, Josefsberg said. The April vacation for the lower schools in Easton has not been affected yet.
3. Should even more days be needed they will be taken from the Feb. 21 to 24 break, beginning with Tuesday, Feb. 21.
4. If still more days are needed, we will use the last week of June 25 to June 29.
As we head into winter, the loss of additional snow days is very likely. For this reason, I advise everyone to assume that all ER9 schools will be in session during the week of April 16 to 20," Josefsberg said. "We should all plan accordingly and refocus our vacation hopes on February."
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