Revising FH Schools' 2012-13 Calendar

Because the wrath of Hurricane Sandy was so unforgiving in its impact to Jersey Shore residents, Fair Haven schools administrators said they were holding their breath in the hope that maybe Gov. Chris Christie would forgive a few make-up school days.

“Alas, he has not done that,” Superintendent Kathleen Cronin said at Wednesday night’s Board of Education meeting. “We are (now) required to submit to the county a revised calendar that shows (the originally required) 180 school days.”

As a result, the primary sacrifice will be a few February vacation days, with ancillary make-ups worked out in full days where there were halves, added half days where there weren’t any, time made up on holidays not bound by teacher contracts, delayed graduation and some shuffling around.

“We were actually out of school for eight days, two of which were in the calendar already, so we have six days to make up,” Cronin said. “We decided to keep our revised calendar as similar to the high school’s as possible,” because about 30 percent of the affected families have kids in both (districts).

The changes are as follows:

• School will be in session, rather than out, on Monday, Jan. 21, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and Feb. 11, 12 and 13, which were originally February vacation days;

• There will be single session days on Jan. 23 and 24, the new parent-teacher conference days, and full days on the originally slated conference days;

• On March 29, Good Friday, there will be a single-session day, whereas high school teachers have been bound by contract to have the day off;

• Graduation will be shifted one day to June 20, instead of 19 and June 19 will now be a full day rather than half;

• The last day of school will now be June 21, a single-session day.

As for snow days, which Cronin said she is really hoping will not be an issue this year, they will begin being made up, if necessary, on “April 5, 4, 3,  etc. …”

“This is the best that we could do,” Cronin said. “Other combinations could have forced us to go into the last week in June; and, it just didn’t seem sensible that we would have a February break and the high school would not. Also, being truthful, once you go past that third week in June, there’s not a lot of learning going on.”

Realizing that many families have already made February vacation plans that involved airfare and other ironclad commitments, Cronin said she expected to have to deal with those concessions but asked that if people have not yet made plans for February, please do not proceed now.