The relatively mild winter and the district’s frequent use of delayed openings rather than closures means that students across the Kingston City School District will have a longer spring recess than originally intended.
Public school districts across New York State are required to offer 180 days of instruction to students, but in a region frequently plagued by snow and ice that’s not always easy to safely do. Districts have at their disposal the option of opening late by one or two hours, the shorter class days still counting toward the annual total. To accommodate days where weather-related closure is the best option, school districts plan their calendar with the potential for wiggle room. In the KCSD, school officials factored as many as seven snow days into their plans for the 2018-19 school year: Use more than seven and spring break would have been incrementally shortened. Use fewer, and days off are given back.
The KCSD used four of its allotted seven snow days this year, meaning students will gain an extra three days off. In the short term, that means spring recess just got one day longer, with Tuesday, April 23 now an off day. Spring recess still begins this weekend, but students won’t return to school again until Wednesday, April 24.
The other two unused snow days will impact Memorial Day weekend, added to either end. That means students will now be off from Friday, May 24 through Tuesday, May 28, returning to class on Wednesday, May 29.
For more information, visit: www.kingstoncityschools.org