The Winslow Township Board of Education made the decision to have school in session on Presidents’ Day at its board meeting last night.
All schools in the Winslow Township School District will be open on Monday, Feb. 20, Presidents’ Day. The Winslow Township Board of Education made the decision after Superintendent Dr. H. Major Poteat’s recommendation, which was posted on the district’s website late last week. This is a makeup day due to school being closed last Thursday because of the snow.
Before the board made its final decision, Poteat explained why he made the recommendation to the board to have the makeup snow day on President’s Day.
According to Poteat, the district does not build in snow days into the school calendar, but they have 14 calendar vacation days, which doesn’t leave the district a lot of flexibility.
“I don’t want to, for example, add days at the end of the calendar year because you start messings with graduation days and we don’t want to change the graduation date,” he said.
Extending the school year was not an option because of the hot temperatures in the building in June and being unbearable for the students and employees. Good Friday and the day after Easter were also days Poteat said he wasn’t touching.
“Whenever we needed a snow day, we used one of our spring break days, but it’s not as easy to come in for one day,” he said. “We’re talking about food services, transportation for one day and all the other day to day operations that have to be in place for that one day.”
Poteat said these decisions are made in the best interest of the parents and the community.
“I look at that day as the most convenient and least distributive of the days we have available,” Poteat said.
