The Livingston School district will open schools for a single session day on Friday, April 5, said superintendent of schools Matthew Block, in a letter sent last Thursday to the LPS community.
Due to a calculation error, this year’s Livingston Public School calendar only built in one, rather than two snow days, Block explained. With two snow days already used, the district will have to make up the one day of school to meet the State-required 180 days of school for students.
When all snow days are used, the calendar, which was approved two years ago, states that the district will begin adding days beginning with the Friday of spring break, and work backward through the spring break week as needed.
April 5 will be an early dismissal day, said Block. He acknowledged that many families have plans for the spring break, and that there will likely be an elevated absence rate that day of both students and staff.
“We have no choice but to make up the day,” he said, and listed several provisions to minimize the impact of the extra day.
For example, there will be no assessments or significant assignments on April 5, and the district may schedule group activities or combine classes. The district is askingparents to register their child’s absence on April 5, if known in advance, by March 15, so schools can plan accordingly.
Student attendance will count as it would on any other school day. The state counts an early dismissal day as one of the required 180 days of school.
If there are additional inclement weather days and additional make-up days are needed, they will continue to come from the spring break week, working backwards (Thursday, April 4, Wednesday, April 3, and so on).
The two snow days taken this year were due to inclement weather on Tuesday, January 16, and Tuesday, February 13.
