Schools
Farmingdale Schools May Cancel February Break
Board of Education must look at time remaining on school calendar.
The Farmingdale Board of Education addressed the impacts of Hurricane Sandy and the subsequent Nor'easter during a public meeting at Howitt Middle School Wednesday.
"We've exhausted all the time plus in our calendar," said Superintendent John Lorentz, who stated the loss of several school days may possibly result in holding school during the scheduled winter recess which is currently set for Feb. 18-22.
"Our calendar has 183 days and we are required to have 180 days of school," said Lorentz, who added that 1-180 of state aid would be at risk if all instructional period requirements are not fulfilled.
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Lorentz said the district's schools suffered little to no damages, but that the storm will affect the district schedules unless the state provides a waiver on the number of required school days.
"The impact of Hurricane Sandy is going to stay with us for quite sometime as we not only recover from the emotional and physical aspect in our homes and communities, but as we work during the school year as well," he said.
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A predicted rough winter was the board's reason for not waiting until the scheduled spring break in order to make up school days.
"We could not wait until the spring break to see if we would have enough time to recover," said Lorentz.
Despite the struggle to proposed changes the districts calendar, Lorentz said he was pleased with how quickly the schools were able to get back up and running.
"I want to really thank the community at large [and] our staff, for trying to get things back to normal as best as we could and as fast as we could because I think that sense of normalcy was lost over the period of time and it was actually great to be able to come back to work and have kids back at school," he said.
School Board President Shari Bardash-Eivers, said she was grateful the schools were able to provide relief to families during the crisis.
"We were without electricity, but as a whole, the district did very well. We have been very fortunate that we were able to help people who were displaced. We have been very fortunate," she said.
