By Kyle Morales
On December 14 2016 school was cancelled for two days due to heavy accumulation of ice on tree branches causing trees to fall over on the road, thus making it difficult for people to get out of their streets and to school or work as well a substantial amount of snow appearing on January 3 2017 which caused school to be cancelled for another two days.
According to the school board each grade has to complete a certain number of hours of instructional time to complete each year. Kindergarten half day require 450 hours, Kindergarten full day require 900 hours, 1st through 8th grade require 900 hours, 9th through 11th grade require 990 hours and 12th graders require 966 hours. With the lost of those hours due to hazardous weather conditions the board will extend the school year up to June 22.
“It’s a good idea, we need to make up the days,” said local teacher Eric Suchman. “We need to [add days], I want second and third trimester to even out,” added another local teacher Kendall Lawless, “ but teaching into late June is hard because people are checked out,” Lawless continued.
After the school board approved the make-up days they announced that four days will be added to the end of the year, June 19-22, and a fifth day has been added during the school year, March 17 for middle school and high school students and May 5th for elementary school students. 4J has also turned the following three previously no school days into regular school days, March 16, March 17, May 5 and June 9. Trimester 3 will start on April 4 instead of on March 20.
While the make up days provide more instructional time for students, they also mean that school will end closer to July and that students and staff will have a shorter summer.
The Caledonian Student Media 