Message from Superintendent Young in Regards to Snow Days
Posted on 02/10/2015
Dear CPS Families and Staff,
Thank you for your patience during this period of wild weather. Every day we work closely with City officials to determine the safety of re-opening school. I am so pleased to work closely with the CIty Manager and the Department of Public Works; the CIty has done remarkable work in dealing with the record-breaking snow. The Manager has assured me that City staff will work as hard as possible to put us in a position to re-open school as soon as it is safe to do so.
State law requires school to be in session for 180 days per year, whenever those 180 days might occur. All districts are asked to build five snow days into the calendar to "prove" that we are able to meet that requirement if the weather is bad in a given year. Some people believe that once we have used up the five snow days, we have finished with our "allotment," but that is not really an accurate statement; all that matters is that we are open for business for 180 days.
CPS' last day, with no snow days, would have been June 17. Today is the sixth snow day, so if there are no more cancellations, our last day will be June 25. Thus, we are "ok" for now. Should we have several more snow days, we would need to look at alternatives for adding days back to the calendar so that we can meet the 180-day threshold. Some districts will consider taking away days from the April vacation, holding Saturday school, opening school up until June 30, opening school on Good Friday, etc. We have not made any decisions about this eventuality at this point.
Jeffrey M. Young
Superintendent of Schools