Spring break not yet in danger
By Ginny Privitar
FLORIDA — This is the third winter here for Dr. Diane M.H. Munro, superintendent of the Florida School District. She hasn't been thrown by this season's relentlessness.
"My experience has been in snowier climates," she said.
Every time you turn around, it seems, white stuff is falling from the sky, and the radio crackles with announcements that school is closed or delayed. Will the state's required 180 days of instruction crimp spring break plans? Not yet, schools schools say.
Whether to close the school is a difficult call, she said. On Tuesday, the district planned on a two-hour delay. But with snow later forecast for closing time, they decided not to open.
Munro starts checking the weather at 4:30 a.m. The facilities manager, Tom Andryshak, also checks different forecasts.
“The folks in Florida understand we err on the side of caution," she said.
Munro said didn’t want to characterize these days off as "snow days."
"We have allotted a generous number of days," she said. "We were closed five days. One was a conference day. We can have up to four conference days" that can be used in case of snow, she said.
Most school districts set aside “snow days" while also using conference days for the purpose.
Goshen
Superintendent Daniel T. Connor of the Goshen School District is also no stranger to snow.
"I'm an upstate guy," he said, but "this winter is really unusual. We've had a lot of snowstorms. The last four, five years we've had more storms — hurricanes, Sandy, ice storms. They say it's directly related to global warming. It seems to go in cycles, and I think we're in one of those cycles right now."
He said administrators will sit down with the unions about where to take additional snow days, if needed. Those days would come from the spring break. But as of Wednesday, the district still had three snow days left.
Chester
“This winter has been very unusual, especially since it’s come all at once, in a short time,” said Chester Schools Superintendent Sean Michel. "The timing of the storms has made it very difficult."
Still, he's not worried about using up all the snow days.
Michel noted the difference between rural and city school districts.
“It's different from the city because we don't have as many walkers," he said. "We use buses to transport the kids and parents’ vehicles, making it more dangerous.”
He remembers many snowy winters like this when he was young. But this winter has also been very cold for so long, it’s made everything more difficult, he said.
Warwick
At the Warwick Valley School District, Susan Laroe, executive secretary to Superintendent Dr. Raymond W. Bryant, said the district hasn’t gone over the allotted snow days in the three years she has been there. If necessary, she said, extra days would be taken from spring break, in this order:
Monday, April 14
Tuesday, April 15
Wednesday, April 16
Thursday, April 17
Friday, April 18
If fewer than five snow days are used, students will have the Friday before Memorial Day — May 23 — off. But to get that day, something unusual will have to happen: no more snow days for the rest of winter.