BELFAST, Maine — The superintendent of RSU 20 is scrambling to find a new solution after the school board nixed his plan to send students to classes on Saturdays to make up for days lost to snowstorms.
Brian Carpenter, the superintendent, said his schools have six days to make up due to storm cancellations. Maine law requires that students have 175 instructional days per year, and some school districts in the state have had to get creative to meet that standard.
“We requested three storm day makeups on Saturdays,” Carpenter said. The rest of the days would have been tacked on at the end of the school year.
The board shot that plan down during its meeting Tuesday night. Carpenter said teachers and parents voiced opposition to the plan. Parents, especially of elementary students, thought six days of school in a week would be too trying for their children and would interfere with events parents had planned for their kids, Carpenter said.
Without some other solution, RSU 20 students will have to go to school until June 22, while seniors will have to go until June 12. Graduations at Searsport District High School and Belfast Area High School are scheduled for June 7. Without Saturday school, those seniors could be asked to come back to school the week after they graduate.
Carpenter said it was too late to change the graduation date.
“It’s a moot point, everything’s been submitted, all the dates have been sent to the publisher,” Carpenter said, adding that he’s concerned about truancy rates if school stretches beyond graduation day.
“I have nothing to hold over them to require them to come back,” he said, adding that he’s exploring the possibility of seeking a waiver from the state. He said he’s considering withholding diplomas until the last day of classes.
The superintendent said he would continue to look for alternatives. He said he hopes to have another plan before the board on its next agenda at a meeting in April.
The Rockland-area school board, RSU 13, recently accepted a Saturday school proposal to make up for some of its snow days before the end of the year. That district has called off school 10 times this year but had five school days set aside within the calendar.
Carpenter said his district didn’t build any anticipated snow days into its schedule. He did not say why that was the case.
RSU 20 has schools in Belfast, Belmont, Morrill, Northport, Searsmont, Searsport, Stockton Springs and Swanville.
Follow Nick McCrea on Twitter @nmccrea213.