Students Will Make Up Missed Days in June

Students in the will make up last week's three school cancellations at the end of the school year, at the recommendation of the Merrimack Superintendent and leadership team.

Superintendent Marge Chiafery presented the recommendation to the School Board on Monday citing that given that it is uncertain how the winter will play out, it seems premature to eliminate holiday and vacation days just yet.

Chiafery told to the board she and board Chairwoman Jody Vaillancourt had received correspondence from two different people suggesting one of the days be taken on Veterans Day at the end of this week. By law, Chiafery said, there are only two holidays schools must take off, and those are Veterans and Memorial days.

In the 2010-11 school year, students finished school on June 22, so with no more snow days this year, tacking these three days to the end of the year, on June 14, 15 and 18, would still put children out ahead of last year.

“If in fact we come up against some more inclement weather, then I will come back to you with a modification,” Chiafery said. “But at this point in time, it seems to be that this might be the best course to choose.”

School Board member George Markwell asked Chiafery about the possibility of making up a day on Nov. 23, the day before Thanksgiving.

Chiafery said she thinks realistically taking that day off creates a hassle for families and staff who have already planned that day as a travel time for Thanksgiving and given how soon it is.

Markwell argued that many companies do not give that day off and said that he thinks it should be considered as a make up day because “we're probably going to have snow days and we're just running out of make up time.”

Chris Ortega asked what the impact is if there are six or seven more days of school cancelled.

“Anything is possible, I think what I was choosing to do is to have the calendar not be static, but to react to it as we need to react to it," Chiafery said.

“What I was adverse to is making major modifications at this juncture because it could be that this aberration is all that we see," Chiafery said.

She pointed out that given past history and the knowledge of what winter brings to New Hampshire, that's probably not true, but she didn't feel it is worth jumping the gun at this point when the school board had already built in to the calendar make-up days stretching to June 25.

She said she and the leadership team listen to staff and parents and take into consideration suggestions made by them but, realistically, it is unlikely to find make-up days everyone is happy with.

“There's just about no day on this calendar, I think that you're going to get 100 percent agreement,” Chiafery said. “The school calendar to me is one of the biggest challenges going.”

Vaillancourt said school calendar has been one of the most contentious projects she's worked on in her five plus years on the board and she agrees with Chiafery in the current course of action.

“One thing I have learned is you are never going to make everyone happy with this calendar,” Vaillancourt said. “...I think making an adjustments at this point, as Marge said, is premature."

Given the recent days off, the first quarter will now end on Nov. 10 instead of Nov. 4 and report cards will be sent out Dec. 2. Second quarter will now end Jan. 27 instead of Jan. 20, Chiafery said, and she will revisit the end of quarters three and four as the winter season carries on based upon how weather affects school days.