Late Labor Day Could Mean Tight Scheduling for Easton School Calendar

The 2015-16 school year could see a messy finish thanks to a late Labor Day and the unpredictable nature of New England winters.

Going over the first draft of the new school calendar at a recent school committee meeting, Superintendent Andrew Keough said that Labor Day falling on Sept. 7 in 2015 and an agreement in the teachers’ contacts that does not allow staff to work past June 30 could result in school finishing very close to the start of July.

“If we have too many snow days we’re going to have to think about vacation days or Saturdays,” Keough said.

The most likely calendars involves the first two of five options given by Keough. In option one, teachers would start on Sept. 1, students would attend class on the second and third, take off the fourth and Labor Day, and continue school on the Tuesday after Labor Day. The last day of school would be June 21 with no snow days and June 28 with all five.

Option two has teachers back on the second, students on the third, and no school until the eighth.

The third option brings the teachers back on the third, the students on the eighth.

Options four and five, the least popular of the proposed calendars, brings everyone back after Labor Day with the final day of school taking place on June 23 or 30 with five snow days.

According to Keough, some teachers do prefer to go back before the holiday.

“The thing about bringing back the kids before Labor Day I’ve heard from teachers is that it allows them to take care of the nuts and bolts stuff and they hit the ground running after labor day,” he said.

Another question will be where two professional development days go. With one likely to take place during Election Day, a second one could be up in the air.

“I have trouble taking another day out of the calendar. It’s laughable how little are students are in school in November. There has to be a better way to do them. I advocated for the professional days so it’s about finding another place to put them,” School Committee Chairman Colleen Less said.

The school committee will take another look at the calendar at a future meeting.