Danbury schools plan to add a day lost to May storm
DANBURY — Public school officials plan to add an extra day to the start of the new school year to ensure the district makes up every day it lost after severe storms closed schools in May.
The district had already added a half day on June 29 to this school calendar and will now also start classes early with a half day on Aug. 31, Superintendent Sal Pascarella announced this week.
The adjustment will satisfy the requirement that the district be in session for 180 days each school year, which it was unable to do after schools unexpectedly closed for three days following a macroburst in May that destroyed homes and knocked out power to most of the area for almost a week.
Because schools had already been closed several days earlier in the year for snow storms, most could only reach 179 days in session by the end of June, so the state asked the district to make up the days in the next school year.
“The problem that we had ... we’re always thinking we’ll know how many we have to make up before April break,” Pascarella said. “But this year we had a tornado and water main break after the (spring) break. That is a problem you can’t anticipate.”
Students at Hayestown Elementary, Pembroke Elementary and Broadview Middle schools also will have an additional half day of school on Columbus Day on Oct. 8, Pascarella said. Those schools had an additional day of school to make up after they closed during a severe water main break in late April.
“At the end of that, they will have made up their two days, so we’re all even at that point,” Pascarella said.
To stave off the possibility of running out of school days next year, district officials plan to assess the number of days off still available before the April break. If schools have used more than 10 — such as snow days or another water main break — the district will add one or two school days to the beginning of the week of April break.