The Seymour Board of Education on Wednesday voted unanimously to open schools Monday (Feb. 18) and Tuesday (Feb. 19).
They had previously been marked as days off, but the four school days the district had already lost because of last week’s blizzard and the resultant cleanup meant that school would have been in session until June 28, the last weekday until July.
Wednesday’s vote means that the last day of school will now be June 27, and that the district’s spring recess, scheduled for April 15 to April 19, will be preserved — provided there are no more snow days.
Superintendent Christine Syriac asked the school board to make the change, since any additional days off would have to be taken away from the district’s spring recess in April.
Before the vote, board member Fred Stanek asked Syriac what she has told parents of children who would miss school Monday and Tuesday for vacations that have already been planned — would they be penalized?
“What I’ve assured them is that their child would incur no penalties for the time missed,” Syriac said. “We have parents who take their children out of school all throughout the school year for vacation and we make arrangements to make sure that they get the work that they missed, that somebody meets with them if they need that one-on-one.”
“I do not think that any one of them should change the plans that they have,” Syriac said. “That time is education as well for children. It’s important for families to have that connection, and please do not change if we change the calendar. If you were going to go away, please go away.”
A letter sent to parents by Syriac regarding her request to the school board is posted below. Article continues after the document.
Seymour Superintendent’s Letter To Parents by ValleyIndyDotOrg
School board Chairman Yashu Putorti said at Wednesday’s meeting that the change made sense to preserve the spring recess, for which he said many families have already made plans.
“If we have any more incidents between now and April, we’ll end up losing the complete April break and we would not have a break between now and the end of the year,” Putorti said. “So the idea is if we put in these two days next week and use them, then two days of the April vacation we could preserve.”
“That’s the idea. Do you want to save April vacation or not?” Putorti asked board members. “The kids have been out of school for seven days now. So we’re going to go to school for one day and then be off for four more days again? To me, that’s kind of backwards.”
“I’d like to preserve April vacation if we can,” Putorti went on.
Syriac said that while preserving April vacation would be great, she’s not so sure that’s feasible, given the school days the district has already lost to snowstorms.
“This is not to preserve April, because my guess is there will be additional days between now and then and then I have to go to April. So I’m not saying this is a trade, that we’re doing Monday and Tuesday in lieu of April,” Syriac said. “My concern is that we are not only going to have to do Monday and Tuesday, but we’ll also potentially lose days off April.”
Although she said she is “optimistic” about school opening on Friday, Syriac said there’s no guarantee, and a cancellation Friday would bring the end of the school back to the end of June.
“If there are any further storms, then I have to close the schools, and that will come off April,” she said.
Board member James Garafolo agreed, but said the move would show the town school leaders are trying to do what they can to preserve the vacation.
“We have no way to know whether there will be any other snow events,” Garafolo said. “But by doing this, by opening Monday and Tuesday, you’re also making a good faith effort to preserve a vacation period, which everybody would like.”
Having school Monday and Tuesday means additional costs to Seymour. Syriac said they’ll have to pay their bus contractor about $1,600, and that she estimates substitute teachers would cost between $1,600 and $2,000 Monday and between $1,100 and $1,500 Tuesday.
In addition, secretaries and custodians will get one additional day off, since Monday is Presidents Day.
School board member Jay Hatfield pointed out that state law requires schools to “hold a suitable nonsectarian education program” in observance of any legal holiday when schools are in session.
Syriac said that wouldn’t be a problem for teachers.
“Typically they would have done it this week prior to Presidents Day,” Syriac said. “It’s something that they all have in their curriculum anyway.”
