HILLSBOROUGH: New school calendar details when closings would be made up

It reacts to many closed days this winter

By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
   Bad winter weather forced a reaction in the next school year’s calendar adopted March 24 by the Board of Education.
   The calendar contains two “snow days,” to be used when conditions make it dangerous for schools to open.
   This year, snow days wound up yielding the cancellation of most of the April break. Classes were in session for all but one day of the vacation week.
   The 2014-15 calendar details more precisely that snow days would be made up as the school year progresses.
   For instance, if there is an emergency closing prior to Oct. 21, the makeup day will be Tuesday, Nov. 4, which is Election Day. If weather forces closures prior to Dec. 19, school would be in session Friday, Jan. 2.
   Similar dates are noted for the four more “snow” days.
   If “good” weather prevails, and the two built-in emergency days are not used, vacation days would be added to the Thursday and Tuesday on both ends of the Memorial Day holiday, giving a six-day break near the end of the year.
   School would start for students on Thursday, Sept. 4, three days after the Labor Day holiday.
   High school graduation is slated for Thursday, June 18, 2015, presumably at Sun Bank Arena in Trenton.
   The first vacation day would be Sept. 25, a Jewish holiday.
   There are no breaks in October.
   Schools would be closed for students on Election Day, Nov. 4, but open for staff. There would be no school Nov. 6 and 7 for the statewide education association convention in Atlantic City.
   From Friday, Nov. 21, through Wednesday, Nov. 26, there would be four-hour sessions for students, with K-6 conferences scheduled for three days and one in-service day for staff.
   There are five teacher in-service days with three additional half days of in-service on Fridays, Oct. 3, March 13 and May 8.
   June 17 and 18 are also “half-days,” which the new calendar calls “four-hour sessions” for students in the new calendar. End-of-year building meetings and end of the year clean-up usually happens on those days.
   The calendar is posted on the school’s website.