Edison Looks To Add More Snow Days To Next Year's Calendar

EDISON, NJ — As Edison kids trudged back to school late Thursday morning following their fifth snow day of the year, parents want to know: why was only one school day built into the calendar for the 2018-2019 school year, and how can we change it?

Edison Board of Education president Jerri Shi says he hears your complaints, and the issue will be addressed at the next board meeting with the goal of pushing graduation back to add more snow days.

"No one is happy" with one snow day, Shi told Patch. "We will be discussing this at our next board meeting."

Shi said the district was working with Rutgers to push next year's graduation back from Wednesday, June 19 to Friday, June 21. The district was originally told the Rutgers Athletic Center, where graduation is held, was booked on the 21st, but it now appears they have an opening (it has not been formally confirmed yet, Shi said). The RAC is typically unavailable past the third week in June because of basketball camps, Shi confirmed to Patch.

If graduation can be pushed back, two additional snow days would be added to the calendar for a total of three (this year the district had two).

It's not the first year Edison students have had to give up part of their spring break following a snowy winter. Parents and students have complained about the small amount of built-in snow days for several years, typically two or three, but say one snow day is unreasonable.

"We don't live in Florida. We live in a state that gets lots of snow every Christmas and spring," Emily Tavares, a junior at J.P. Stevens told Patch. "Our snow days keep increasing and they decide to drop the amount that we initially get. The reason we're missing out on spring break and other holidays is because of this problem."

"Given the last few years I think it would be best if we put at least four snow days into the school year. It's very easy to add vacation days and very difficult to take them away," parent Gina Cousin said.

Erin-Leigh Van Orden echoed this sentiment, saying it was better to have them and not need them, then need them and not have them.

"It is easier to give back unused snow days than to make them up. I am both a parent and an educator, and feel that this is simply inadequate planning. I’d rather have the days available to take and use them if needed rather than time allocations playing into decisions regarding closing school. It puts the students and staff at unnecessary risk, and I hope that this decision is changed," Van Orden said.

The district had two days built in for the current school year but wound up taking five, meaning students will have to make up the days over spring break. The district announced this week school will operate on a single session schedule April 2-4 as make-up days. (Unlike other districts who make them up at the end of the year, Edison's graduation date is fixed and cannot be moved due to scheduling with the RAC.)

Other parents pointed out the difficulty of fitting in more snow days and accommodating the numerous religious and ethnic holidays Edison takes off for.

"How do you live in the northeast and only allow for one snow day. But at the same time, people want to have all these holidays... if they have off and snow days the kids would be going to school until July," Laurie Ann said.

Shi said the district understood that the volume of holidays made scheduling difficult, but cited Edison's ethnic diversity as a need to have them in the calendar.

"The uniqueness of Edison is we are a very diverse community, and we have some holidays that other school districts do not have, so that adds a little difficulty to our calendar that some of the other districts don’t have,” Shi said, calling the district “committed to diversity.” The school district’s population is 65 percent of Asian descent, Shi said, and recently added Diwali and Lunar New Year as days off. (Should the school use more than their allotted snow days next year, Lunar New Year would be the first make-up day.)

Some parents said only having one day built in wouldn't be so bad, if the school offered the option of virtual make-up days. Pasack Valley Regional High School District is opting for a digital day for their spring-break make-up day. It's unclear if Edison has the technology in place to do that.

The next Board of Education meeting will be held on Monday, April 23 at 7 p.m. at Woodbrook Elementary School.

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