UPDATE: Region 15 Feb. Break Untouched for Now

UPDATE:  According to a Region 15 press release, Superintendent Frank Sippy has decided not to take snow days out of the February break.

Sippy will recommend that the board of education replace future February breaks with a four-day Friday through Monday 'president's weekend' break to prevent a build up of snow days.

Sippy said his decision was made with the education of the student's in mind.  Too many teachers had already made commitments over February break and Sippy said he wasn't sure the great number of substitutes needed would provide the same quality education.

There was also the threat of the February make up days being snowed out themselves.

"[To take days from February Break] we would be scheduling make up days simply to make up days and that disadvantages all 4,500 youngsters who attend our schools," said Sippy.  "There is no simple remedy available that would satisfy everyone’s interest and benefit all students. I make my recommendation based on what I believe is in the best interest of all Region 15 students."

If further snow days present themselves, Sippy said he will consider turning a 'teacher work day' on June 6 into a regular school day, or subtract days from April break.

Original Story -

Superintendent of Region 15 Schools Dr. Frank Sippy is developing an action plan regarding snow days. Here is what Sippy said in his Special Superintendant’s Message Friday.

Special Winter Report - Snow Days

To date, we have had to close Region 15 Schools for eight days because of weather related conditions.

• This places the last day of school for students at Wednesday, June 22..
• Pomperaug High School graduation will take place on Wednesday, June 22.
• We scheduled up to eight snow days in our calendars.
• We have used eight snow days, and I will extend it to ten to include Thursday, June 23 and Friday, June 24.
• If we use two more snow days that will place us at a critical decision point of deciding to:

1. Allow school to run through June 30, which would give us three more school days,

2. Begin taking from the April vacation according to the Board of Education adopted calendar,

3. Consider taking some days from the February break to help offset the number of days.

Let's Look at the Options

1. CGS 10-259 states that a school year constituting 180 days must be concluded by June 30, of that year. Therefore, we do not have the ability to make up snow days in July. As a result, the easiest solution is simply to run school through June 29 and that would give us three more make-up opportunities. The difficulty is the summer heat; we all recall how hot it was in early September 2010. Some of our buildings have air conditioning but the majority of our buildings do not. At certain points during last year’s heat wave, classroom temperatures exceeded 80 degrees. For this current school year, I want to avoid placing children in a similar situation in late June; therefore, I have decided, unless I am forced to, I will not bring children to school beyond Friday, June 24, 2011.

2. Assuming we will have more than two more snow days to make up, according to the Board of Education approved 2010-11 calendar, we will take the days from the April vacation. (The current approved three-year calendar was recommended to the Board of Education by the Region 15 Calendar Committee, which was comprised of parents and staff members.) This year’s calendar directions clearly states that days will be made up during Spring Recess starting with Monday and working toward Thursday. To date, this is the fall back mechanism in play. However many parents expressed a desire to investigate the possibility of making up snow days from the February break, and I agreed I would examine the possibility of making up school days from the February break.

3. Generally, February break is not designated as a make up period because of the high probability those day would not be available to go to school due to snow storms. The April days were selected because they offered a far better chance weather would not curtail school schedules. With the high number of snow days we have used already, I felt it was worth exploring the possibility. 80 percent of the respondents to the Alert Now tele-survey to parents and staff asked to use the February recess. We are in the process of determining staff implications if we were to use the February recess. Please keep in mind, parents, as well as staff, operated under the assumption that February break would not be compromised. Once I have an idea of staffing plans and the number of substitute staff needed, I will be able to make a final decision on whether or not to go to school during part of the February break. This is a complicated issue so I am giving my self through Tuesday February 8 to arrive at a final decision.

Safety at Our Schools

I understand people are concerned about the stress all this snow places on school buildings. The Director of Finance and Operations contacted our architect to discuss how best to approach this concern. 

• The snow /ice loads on permanent structure warrant monitoring and removal or displacement of snow. So in areas where snow exceeds 24 inches we are either removing it or shoveling it to a different portion of the roof where less snow has accumulated. This process is ongoing.
• We hired a firm to begin removing snow from our 19 portable classrooms. The work began Thursday, continues today, and should be completed sometime on Saturday, February 5.
• Anticipating a thawing period. we will dig troughs to allow melting water to move away from our buildings

I completely understand the impact the snow days have had on family schedules, and I thank you for your patience and support during these weather related decision-making days of winter.