Medfield Public Schools Have Not Exceeded Snow Day Limit

Medfield Superintendent of Schools Bob Maguire put to rest school schedule rumors floating around town at the Feb. 7 School Committee meeting.

"Basically, there are five days, required by law, that every school district must install into their calendar before the start of the year," Maguire said.

Originally, the last day of school was scheduled for June 17, with the option for up to five additional days due to school closings. Medfield has expended four of the five snow days provided on its academic calendar, meaning if no more snow days are used, the last day of school will be June 23.

"My goal is not to get into dealing with Saturdays or school vacations," Maguire said in terms of making up for lost days due to closings. Maguire explained that if Medfield schools go over the allowed five days, he would suggest simply adding days to the June 24 cutoff. 

"My recommendation to [the school committee] if we exceeded that would be to tack some more days on the next week and I would discuss that with them further once we approached that," Maguire said. Maguire said contractually, teachers cannot work in the classroom beyond June 30 and that there is "quite a bit of time" left in the schedule. 

State Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester told school officials statewide recently that snow day waivers from the state's 180-day school year requirement are "premature" right now.

While Medfield appears to be in good shape regarding snow days and end-of-year schedule, other school districts have reached their limits with winter far from over.

School officials are considering options for meeting the state's minimum school year requirement. Some school districts have inquired about waivers, Chester told school superintendents and charter school leaders in a memo. 

However, "at this point in the school year it is premature to grant any waivers. There is still time for districts that have had to close for multiple days to adjust their calendars to ensure that our students do not lose out on valuable learning time," Chester said.

The options include: "cancel or shorten either their February or April vacations, convert scheduled professional development days into school days for students, hold school days on Saturday, keep school open on Good Friday, or add days later in June beyond the originally scheduled last day of school," Chester said.

"We will keep an eye on how the rest of the winter and the school year progress and will notify you if this guidance changes," he added.

However, state education officials have set up guidelines for handling this issue from now forward, he said.

Schools must make up all days missed from the start of school to March 31.

Days missed between April 1 and June 1 "must be made up to ensure a 180-day school year or at least until the district has reached its previously-scheduled 185th day, whichever comes first. If all five snow days have been used prior to this point, the district is not required to schedule additional school days," Chester said.

Days missed after June 1 need not be made up, he said.