HOULTON, Maine — Winters in Aroostook County can be tough on school administrators who must decide whether to have classes during a storm or take the day off.
Some school officials have extra days built into the school year calendar to account for two or three snow days during the year. Others, such as in southern Aroostook County, however, don’t. That means every time school is called off because of a storm, a day must be added to the end of the calendar year, unless other arrangements are made.
By state law, students must attend 175 days of classes, so when snow days start to pile up, schools must find ways to get creative on how this instruction time is made up.
This year has been no exception, as snow days have rapidly added up for many school districts, forcing some schools to consider other options concerning how to make up missed time in the classroom.
RSU 50 (Southern Aroostook and Katahdin), for instance, which has been hardest hit in The County with seven snow days this winter, is exploring alternatives. Initially, the final day of classes was scheduled for Tuesday, June 12, but with so much time missed because of the weather, the district would have to go until June 21 in order to get in the required number of days.
Superintendent Todd LeRoy said Monday that he has petitioned the state’s Department of Education for permission to extend the school day one extra hour each day for 20 days, which would account for four missed days of classes.
“If approved by the commissioner, schools can add an hour to their school days and for every five hours made up, one snow day is waived,” he said. “My plan would be to do five weeks of extended days Monday through Thursday making up four snow days.”
By extending the school day by one hour, classes would end at 3:20 p.m. instead of the traditional 2:20 p.m. The district did a similar plan last year when six snow days needed to be made up. If the plan is approved, the final day of classes would be Friday, June 15, barring any additional lost time.
In central Aroostook County, some districts budget for some snow days while others plan to make up any they take.
SAD 42 in Mars Hill has taken two snow days this winter and will be making them up at the end of the school year, said superintendent Elaine Boulier.
The Easton school system has taken the two snow days that were budgeted into the calendar, according to superintendent Roger Shaw. “Any more and we just add on to the end of the school year.”
MSAD 27 in Fort Kent has had two snow days to date. Superintendent Ben Sirois said that students will make up those days at the end of the school year which previously had been scheduled to end on Tuesday, June 12.
“With the two snow days, the last day is now Thursday, June 14, unless we have additional snow days,” said Sirois.
Students served by MSAD 33 in Frenchville and St. Agatha also will make up the two snow days they lost at the end of the year. Barring any additional snow days, they will complete their school year on June 15.
Both SAD 70 (Hodgdon) and RSU 29 (Houlton) have lost five days of classes due to snow, which is one more than last year. Those two districts have simply tacked on the missed days to the end of their school calendars, pushing the final day of classes to Tuesday, June 19, for both districts.
Graduations will not be impacted by the snow days. Houlton High School will hold its commencement on Thursday, June 7, while Hodgdon and Southern Aroostook are both slated to hold graduation ceremonies on Friday, June 8. Katahdin’s graduation is scheduled for Saturday, June 9.
Woodland Consolidated School and RSU 39 (Caribou, Limestone, Stockholm), also have taken two snow days this winter. Woodland Principal Susie Schloeman said her school just adds days at the end of the school year to account for the lost days. RSU 39 Superintendent Tim Doak said that school system budgeted three snow days into the school calendar.
School districts outside of Aroostook County seemed to deal with more weather-related shutdowns this year than the northern school systems.
Following last week’s nor’easter, for instance Bethel-based SAD 44 in western Maine, already had shut down classes 11 days this year due to storms.
Earlier this month, school officials there — after their eighth snow day — received approval from the Maine Department of Education to start adding an extra hour onto the school day to account for some makeup days. In addition, the district pushed the last day of school back to June 22.
The irony was not lost on Doak who oversees schools in the Caribou area.
“This is this the first year in a long time that Caribou and Aroostook County will finish school before southern Maine,” he said.
Writers Jessica Potila of the St. John Valley Times, Christopher Bouchard of the Aroostook Republican and Anthony Brino of The Star-Herald contributed to this report.
