Glastonbury School Board: Snow Days Won't Affect Summer Vacation

The Glastonbury Board of Education is hoping that last week’s snowfall was the last of the season, as some town schools are now cutting into April vacation.

After hearing a report from Superintendent Alan B. Bookman on the district’s snow days during a meeting Monday night, the school board decided to follow their current policies and not extend school into June for three of the town’s nine schools.

“It’s tough, but we have a policy in place and we have to stick with it,” Vice Chairman Jeremy Grieveson said.

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After classes were cancelled on Friday because of snow, Smith Middle School and the Buttonball Lane and Hebron Avenue schools are scheduled to be in session on Monday, April 15. Those three schools opened a day later than the rest of the town’s schools following Hurricane Sandy.

Superintendent Bookman told the Board of Education that he “very much did not want to call off school,” saying that he knew it would cut into spring vacation for those schools. If there are any other snow days, the rest the school district would have to use April days, as well.

During Monday night’s discussion, board member Douglas C. Foyle cited a survey that the board held in 2011 after Hurricane Irene asking parents and staff about the school’s vacation policy.

“People didn’t want to go to school that final week in June and were upset that the board of education was changing their plan in the middle of the calendar year,” Foyle said.

The school system hasn’t gone to school in the final week of June since the 1970’s.

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