Date: Fri 15-Mar-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: STEVEB

Quick Words:

schools-April-vacation-snow

Full Text:

April Vacation For Newtown Schools hangs on

B Y S TEVE B IGHAM

Just when teachers and students thought they were out of the woods, down came

the snow, pushing their April vacation even closer to the edge.

The cancellation of school last Friday in Newtown due to snow ran the number

of school closings this year to seven, prompting new speculation about the

fate of April vacation. One more school closing and school officials will be

forced to begin cutting days from the spring break, slated April 15-19.

Nevertheless, the annual week off from school remains intact with both

teachers and students crossing their fingers in the hopes that the snow stays

away, or, at least falls on a weekend.

"We certainly hope we can avoid it, but of course, we have no control over

that," Superintendent of School John R. Reed said Monday. "Over the weekend, I

heard that this weekend was going to be nothing but sun, so I thought, ~`we're

almost to spring, maybe we can make it,'" he explained.

The final day of school was originally slated for June 12 but has since been

pushed back to Friday, June 21. That's as far into June as school officials

are willing to go.

If you had asked Newtown High School Principal Bill Manfredonia last fall if

April vacation would still be intact after having been hit with more than 100

inches of snow this winter, he would have surely said no. Afterall, spring

break was cut short by a day two years ago after the area was hit with far

less snow than this year. The big difference Á much of this year's snow has

fallen on Friday afternoons and Saturdays, allowing plenty of time for snow

removal before Monday morning.

Mr Manfredonia, who coaches a Parks & Recreation boys' basketball team, said

his team has had five Saturday games postponed this year because of snow.

Surprisingly, with all the snow that has fallen this winter, Newtown's

schools, until Friday, hadn't been closed since early January when school was

called off on two consecutive days after a severe pounding of nearly two feet

of snow. For the second half of January and all of February, this winter's

snow took it easy on the schools.

"We were on a roll there for a while," Dr Reed said.

The superintendent explained that if it hadn't been for the work of Newtown's

snow removal crew early Thursday morning, part of April vacation may have

already been lost. He said, despite the snowfall, roads were clear enough to

begin school on time Thursday morning.

Schools in Ridgefield and Monroe weren't so lucky. Ridgefield sent its

students in late Thursday and ended up sending them home early, meaning not

enough hours were put in to count it as an official school day. In Monroe,

school was canceled altogether Thursday.

If Newtown students' fears are realized, and school is forced to be canceled

again, Dr Reed said he will be curious to see the attendance rate on the day

of school during the planned vacation week.

"I would expect that people would make the effort to be in school if we had to

cut into April vacation, but on the other hand, I'm a realist."

If all goes well, students and teachers will get to enjoy spring break in its

entirety.

The state requires school's to be in session for 180 days in order to receive

funding and accrediation.

Spring officially arrives at 3:03 am Wednesday, March 20.