School Canceled, BOE Considers Options

Westport Public Schools have been canceled for the fourth time due to the weather on Thursday. Administrative offices are closed, and all after school activities have been canceled or postponed.

With the school district's three available snow days used up, the Board of Education is weighing its options on how to make up for the extra snow day.

The board can take away from the February or April breaks, extend the school year, or do nothing. The state mandates 180 teaching days, and Westport scheduled 182 in order to get through all the coursework.  

“I don’t really like that idea because it cuts into instruction,” said Board of Education Chairman Don O’Day when asked about the possibility of doing nothing to make up for the snow days.

Summer, a time when families often leave town, is also considered unappealing.

“That’s really not an attractive solution," he said.

But with winter showing no signs of relenting, the decision on what to do is more “problematic” than past years, said O’Day with the Feb. 21 vacation fast approaching. There could conceivably be more snow days before then, with very little notice to change vacation plans.

O’Day said he expect the Board of Education to decide what to do at an upcoming public meeting. He said he’d like to give parents as much notice as possible so they can arrange family vacations accordingly.

The spring recess begins April 18 and the school year comes to an end in June.