Good Friday, Extra Assignments to Help Braintree Make up School Days

Saturdays and April Vacation will not be used to make up the nine school days lost in Braintree due to multiple snowstorms, but students will have a little extra homework and school on a holiday.

The Braintree School Committee voted on Monday night to hold school on Good Friday and use an extended learning project to make up two days of school. The April 3 classes will be an early release and handled like a standard religious holiday for any student or teacher unable to attend for religious reasons.

Superintendent Maureen Murray called the plan the best solution in terms of days to be made up and attendance.

“We would like to have a full compliment of students and teachers and I’m afraid if we get into the other options the chances won’t be as great,” Murray said.

The second component will see students working on a project on Braintree’s role in history in anticipation of the town’s 375th anniversary. Elementary students will have a bingo board of activities to complete such as reading a poem, discussing a book during dinner, or attending the Braintree 375th anniversary parade.

Examples given for middle and high schoolers included the creation of a travel brochure for Braintree, an essay about who to dedicate a monument to, a letter writing campaign, and an essay based on a documentary. Materials will be available at the Thayer Library and online.

The assignment will be ungraded, produced for completion. Students will work on the project between April 10 and May 4.

Braintree attempted to avoid the extended learning assignment though the request of a waiver to allow for a school year less than the required 180 days. The state’s commissioner of education denied the waiver, recommending an extra assignment to make up for the snow days.

“We had such a unique winter, we felt asking for a waiver was a recognition of what we faced and would take away some of the anxiety,” Mayor Joseph Sullivan said. “In denying the waiver, the Department of Education said to come up with a good faith effort and this is what this is.”

Full details of the assignment will be distributed to students and on the Braintree Public Schools’ website once finalized and approved by teachers and the Department of Education.

The extra day and the assignment moves the last day of school to June 26 for kindergarten through ninth grade and the 29th for 10th and 11th graders.