No waiver of 180-day school year for Wallingford

As published in the Record Journal on Thursday March 28, 2013

By Eric Vo
Record-Journal staff
evo@record-journal.com
(203) 317-2235
Twitter:@ericvoRJ

WALLINGFORD - Since School Superintendent Salvatore Menzo hasn’t yet exhausted all available options to make up snow days, state Education Commissioner Stefan Pryor denied his request for a five-day waiver of the 180 school-day requirement.

“The State Board of Education will expect that a district requesting a waiver demonstrate that it has exhausted all possible remedies, including vacations,” Pryor wrote in his response to Menzo.

If needed, school administrators have three options to make up snow days. There are still days available from April vacation that could be used. Menzo also said the school system could turn the last full day of professional development, May 24, into a school day. And in his response to Menzo, Pryor suggested using Memorial Day as a school day.

There were mixed reactions from both students and parents about the possibility of going to school on Memorial Day. Trevor Biel, a freshman at Sheehan High School, said that because students are already in school until June 28, he “wouldn’t mind too much” if he were asked to go to school on Memorial Day.

“It’s just another day to go to school,” he said. “It’s not a big deal. It’s only one day.”

But Danielle LaButis, a Sheehan junior, disagreed.

“It’s a holiday and we’ve always had it off,” she said. “They shouldn’t take it away.”

Jenni French, the president of the Parent Teacher Advisory Council at Sheehan, has two children in the school system. The state’s recommendation of having students attend school on Memorial Day was “callous,” French said.

“It’s a shame, really. If I were a parent and had someone in the family in the service, I think it’s a callous remark to take that away from families,” she said, adding that Memorial Day is about remembering those who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country and Veterans Day is about honoring all veterans.

Menzo said Pryor’s suggestion was only for “extreme circumstances” and that administrators have no intention of following through with it.

Menzo initially submitted a request for the waiver after the impact Hurricane Sandy and the record-setting snowstorm in February had on the school calendar. But the State Board of Education “has been reluctant to waive the 180 day requirement” because it “has the potential to send the wrong message to our school districts and to our students,” Pryor wrote in his letter.

“I understand his concerns about giving a waiver and that the concept of it is difficult to accept sometimes (because) it is precedent setting,” Menzo said. “Once you offer a waiver to one district, you have to be prepared for all the other districts to also ask ... we don’t take it personally in Wallingford, we respect his decision.”

But Menzo said he was “hopeful” the state would grant a waiver of one or two days. And French felt the same way.

“It’s not a perfect solution, but it would have been reasonable to come back and say you’re going to have to use your April vacation, but we’ll give you one day,” she said. “This is an extreme and unusual situation.”