Schools Seeking Info About Impact of Makeup Days During Vacation

Students and parents today have a chance to let school leaders know the potential impact of making up lost school days during either February or April vacation.

Elementary school students after more than a week out of school while the school roofs were cleared of snow to make sure the buildings were safe. The high school is expected to reopen on Thursday and the .

The three question survey asks parents whether holding school during either of the regularly scheduled vacation weeks would “cause you financial loss or undue hardship due to previously scheduled plans?”

There is less than 24 hours to complete the survey. The deadline is 9 a.m. on Thursday.

School officials said in a ConnectEd telephone and e-mail message that they would use the data collected in the survey to figure how many students may be absent if school days were made up during a school vacation week.

On Tuesday, the School Committee and the Hamilton-Wenham Regional Education Association – the teachers union - met to discuss some of the options “in dealing with proposed modifications to the school calendar as it relates to last day of school,” school officials said in the ConnectEd message sent on Wednesday morning.

Without any more snow days, the last day of school for the elementary schools is Tuesday, June 28, with the last day for as Wednesday June 29 and it is Thursday, June 30 at .

The survey doesn't ask about the possible financial loss or hardship of keeping the existing last day of school in place.

School leaders are considering the “feasibility of returning days to the calendar by eliminating several days from either the February or April school vacations.”

Regardless of the option selected to makeup some of the days, the School Committee and union say they “are committed to ensuring that faculty and/or students who are not able to change previously scheduled plans will not face either monetary or educational penalties.”