Newport Students Will Make Up Gas Outage Days

NEWPORT, RI — Summer vacation is coming a few days late for Newport students. The last day of school has been adjusted on the public school calendar to include the four days missed during January's natural gas outage on Aquidneck Island, bringing the last day to June 21.

Following the outage, the Newport school district applied for a waiver for the missed days so students wouldn't have to make them up at the end of the year. The Rhode Island Department of Education denied the request, though the school district appealed the decision. A final ruling is expected on May 14.

Megan Geoghegan, communications director at the Rhode Island Department of Education, said waiver decisions are often based on whether the entire district or just a single schools is submitting the request. If an entire district is closed for snow or some other emergency, waivers are usually rejected. However, if just one school has to close, the department is more likely to bypass the requirement that students make up lost days.

"For example, if a district closes all schools for a snow day, no waiver will be granted," Geoghegansaid. "If one school closes because of a water pipe burst, though, and the remaining district schools are open, that waiver likely would be granted in order to mitigate the transportation and operational challenges that would result from having some schools open and others closed on a given day."

For this reason, the education commissioner denied the initial request, as all Newport schools were closed during the outage. The full RIDE Council on Elementary and Secondary Education is expected to make a decision on the appeal at their next meeting on May 14.

According to the district calendar, the last day of school is now Friday, June 21. Both June 20 and 21 will be early release days.

All Newport Public Schools were closed for the four days following Martin Luther King, Jr. day in January due to a National Grid natural gas outage that led to a lack of heat in schools. During the outage, Newport Jamie Bova stressed that schools and other municipal buildings were the top priority for gas restoration, and schools were some of the first buildings to regain heat once service was restored.

More Patch coverage of Newport's gas outage:

• Raimondo, State Lawmakers Push For National Grid Accountability
• Gas Outage Update: More Than 99 Percent Restored
• Schools Canceled, Free Meals Available As Gas Outage Continues
• Governor Declares State of Emergency in Newport For Gas Outage