Mid-Winter Change for Late School Openings

Livingston schools will open with a two-hour delay – if and when – the next winter storm hits.

The Board of Education held a special meeting on Monday night to officially make the change, adding 30 extra minutes to start times when schools open late.

The extra time may prevent another full snow day. Livingston has already used up the three days it set aside for snow. Another blast will see students staying one extra day in June. Any more, and spring break will begin to slip away.

“Every day we get in now – even with less instructional time,” is more meaningful than school days tagged on to the end of the year and in April, said Superintendent of Schools Brad Draeger.

Draeger makes the call around 4 a.m. during the wintry blasts, most that have hit overnight, hampering Livingston’s snow crews efforts to clear streets by daylight.

Two-hour delays count as a full day of school by the state Department of Education and may make the difference between cancellations and allowing time for teachers, staff and students to safety get to school, Draeger and board members said.

The change was supported by school principals, parent groups, and the township safety council.

Livingston will be seeing yet another wintry blast as soon as Tuesday. The National Weather Service has issued a hazardous weather outlook for Livingston.

If you’re wondering if spring will ever come, we turned to the state climatologist Dr. David Robinson for the answer. “Well my dog saw her shadow (on Groundhog Day) thanks to a floodlight on her in the early morning ice.”

Robinson says these past five weeks “will be but a memory in the not-to-distant future.” The question is, how soon? The National Weather Service's outlooks are for below average temperatures. It doesn't appear as if exceedingly mild weather is on the way to stay at least until late month.

“So hang in there,” says Robinson, chairman of department of geography at Rutgers University. “The days are getting longer and average temperatures rise about 5 degrees over the course of a February.”

Here is when schools will open on the next delayed opening:

School

Regular Start Time

90 minute delay

2 hour delay

Elementary

8:05 a.m.

9:35 a.m.

10:05 a.m.

MPM

8:35 a.m.

10:10 a.m.

10:35 a.m.

HMS

8:20 a.m.

9:50 a.m.

10:20 a.m.

LHS

7:55 a.m.

9:15 a.m.

9:55 a.m.