Solar Eclipse Early Dismissal Planned For Bristol Twp. Students

BRISTOL TOWNSHIP, PA —With the partial solar eclipse just days away, the Bristol Township School District is sending students home early to witness this astronomical event.

School officials said that all Bristol Township schools will have early dismissal on Monday due to the eclipse.

The dismissal schedule is as follows:

• Truman: 12:05 p.m.
• Armstrong/Franklin: 12:30 p.m.
• Brookwood/Keystone/Mill Creek: 1:15 p.m.

Lunch will be provided in all schools.

All after-school activities and events are canceled. KidTime will not be offered after dismissal on Monday.

"After consultation with stakeholders with relevance and expertise, the decision has been made for the Bristol Township School District to operate on an Early Dismissal Schedule on that date," school officials said. "We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause for school community members, but after careful consideration, it was determined that this was the best approach to ensure the safety of our students and navigate the challenges posed by this significant scientific event."

With this early dismissal, the school day will be over and students should be home before the start of the solar eclipse.

During a total solar eclipse, the moon is positioned at just the correct distance to create
a perspective where it is the same angular size as the Earth, and the moon appears to
block the sun completely, school officials said.

On Monday, the Bristol Township area will experience a partial solar eclipse, perhaps reaching over 90 percent of totality.

"That makes this a 'deep partial' solar eclipse, where the sky will get noticeably darker, brighter stars will be visible and the sun’s profile will be reduced to a slender crescent. Obviously, all of this, and the local impact is dependent on the weather and cloud cover," school officials said.

In Lower Bucks County, the moon is expected to begin its path across the sun around 2 p.m. and will move from south to west for nearly two-and-a-half hours until about 4:35 p.m.

The mid-eclipse time — when the highest coverage will occur — will be around 3:25 p.m. This will be the greatest solar coverage the region has seen since Memorial Day weekend in 1984, which was at 95 percent, school officials said.

The last significant partial non-annular eclipse took place on Aug. 21, 2017, when coverage was at 80 percent.