Community Corner

Update 8:22 p.m. - Meriden Public Schools Open Wednesday, District Deciding On Makeup Days

The first day of school was postponed two days by Hurricane Irene, but the District will open its doors on Wednesday.

Update - 8:22 p.m.

As of 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, all of Meriden's public schools had power, according to Assistant Superintendent Michael Grove.

Update - 7:44 p.m.

Find out what's happening in Meridenwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Staff at both St. Stanislaus and Our Lady of Mount Carmel schools confirmed that their schools will open Wednesday. St. Joseph School will be closed because power was restored very late in the day. St. Joseph Principal Kathy Spencer wrote on the school's website:

"We expect that school will resume on Thursday, September 1st, once we can assure that the fire safety equipment is charged and in proper working condition. Opening day Mass will be held on Tuesday, September 6, 2011. The Open House and H.S.A. meeting scheduled for Wednesday, August 31st has been postponed until September 7th. The Open House and H.S. A. meeting scheduled for September 7th will be held on September 14th. We thank you for your patience and flexibility. The teachers are eager to meet their new students and begin the year!"

Find out what's happening in Meridenwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Original Story

Parents rejoice! After two canceled days, Wednesday will officially be the first day of school for Meriden Public School students, according to the district.

"The staff is anxious and excited to get going," Meriden Schools Superintendent Mark Benigni said Tuesday.

The power has been restored to four of the five Meriden elementary schools that lost electricity during Sunday's storm. CL&P is reportedly working on restoring power to Casimir Pulaski and the district believes it will be back online by Wednesday morning.

If the power is not back on to Pulaski in time, Benigni said classes will still go on - there are contingency plans in place that include generators and bag lunches. The school would provide students with bagged lunches made off-site, Benigni said.

Roger Sherman, Israel Putnam, Casimir Pulaski, John Barry, and Thomas Hooker after Hurricane Irene's high winds downed trees and power lines throughout the city.

On Tuesday, maintenance staff returned frozen foods to the schools that they had been storing in a rented freezer truck at Maloney High School since Sunday evening.

It looks like there will definitely be at least one day added to the end of the school year. The district will decide how it will deal with the two canceled days, Benigni said, after discussions with the Board of Education and staff unions.

There are two possibilites:

The district could consider the two days snow days, which means the two cancellations would add only one makeup day to the end of the year. (The district puts one extra day in the school calendar to make up for the first snow day of each school year.) But district rules say the school can only tack on five makeup days at the end of a year, and then it starts to remove days from April vacation. If the district goes this route "April vacation is four snow days away from being impacted," Benigni said.

or

The district could tack on two days at the end of the school year, essentially bumping the school year two days forward. That would mean the district would have 6 snow days before having to take time from April vacation. So the next snow day (or general school cancellation) would not need to be made up, and up to five more can be tacked to the end of the year. 

Last year's unprecedented winter took one day from the April break.

Either way, Benigni said, the students will have their mandatory 180 days of school.


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