Wallingford schools ask for relief on 180-day rule

As published in the Record Journal on Friday March 1, 2013

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

WALLINGFORD - School Superintendent Salvatore Menzo and the Board of Education will ask the Connecticut Department of Education to allow a reduction of five school days in this year’s school calendar.

Menzo has drafted a letter, which he shared with school board members Monday night, that will be sent to Education Commissioner Stefan Pryor requesting a waiver of the required 180-day school year. Menzo said he decided to ask for a five day reduction because schools were closed for five days after the Feb. 8-9 blizzard.

Menzo said he plans to send the letter Tuesday, because he is waiting for school board member Jay Cei to return from a business trip to sign the letter.

While the entire state was affected by Hurricane Sandy and the recent blizzard, Menzo says in the letter that Wallingford schools had to close for nine days because of the “significant weather related disasters.”

“In an effort to be creative and to avoid more significant loss of educational time, we relocated one of our two high schools, Sheehan High School, to the Toyota Presents the Oakdale Theater in October,” Menzo wrote. “The relocation was necessary after half of the high school roof blew off during the hurricane resulting in significant water damage.”

Students are scheduled to attend school until Friday, June 28. In addition to this, administrators had to shorten the February and April vacations to make up snow days.

If Pryor denies the waiver request, it puts Wallingford schools “between a rock and a hard place,” said Kathy Castelli, a school board member.

“We’re already pushed to the last day in June. We can’t go into July because it’s against state mandates and teacher contracts,” she said. “There’s no way we can do that.”

Having the last day of school on June 28 also presents a problem for the district’s roof project, which will begin in the summer and affect eight schools.

“With the now elongated school year, the window for work completion prior to the start of next year has decreased significantly,” Menzo wrote in the letter.

Menzo said Wallingford students have exceeded the state’s 180-day requirement over the past 15 years, attending school “on average of at least 182 days a year.”

“I certainly feel that we’ve given him justification for the exception this year,” Castelli said, “especially in light of the fact that for the past 15 years we always exceeded the number of school days.”

If the waiver request is denied and there are more snow days, Board of Education Chairwoman Roxane McKay said even more days will have to be removed from April vacation. However, if there are more than two snow days, it leaves the district with only one option, Menzo said.

“The only other option that would still be on the table would be one day, which is the professional development day,” he said.

The last full day of professional development is scheduled for Friday, May 24. While having students report to school on that day would be beneficial to them, it complicates things for teachers, Menzo said.

“The challenge is that teachers would still have to work 189 days, but they can’t go (into July),” he said. “Honestly, it gets really complicated.”

Castelli said she’s hopeful that Pryor will grant the five day reduction.

“We lose more than two more days, we have no place to go. You can’t extend hours in the day and you can’t go to school on the weekends; it’s not allowed,” she said. “There’s nothing you can do to be compliant with what the state mandates.”

“It’s phenomenal and extraordinary innovation of Sal (Menzo) and his staff to use the Oakdale so students don’t lose time,” Castelli said. “Because of everything, I think the commissioner will grant the waiver.”

Pryor’s office did not return a call for comment Thursday.