Meriden Schools Closed Monday

Meriden public schools will be closed Monday Aug. 29 – slated to be the first day of the 2011-2012 academic year – due to Hurricane Irene.

Parents will be receiving alert messages by phone Saturday informing them of the closures, according to Board of Education President Mark Hughes. Staff, except for maintenance and custodial personnel, are also not to come to school.

"While a decision certainly can’t be made on damages and power outages right now," Hughes said, if the storm , "It won’t leave any time for any assesement of that."

Wilcox Technical High School and St. Joseph School are reporting that they will be closed on their websites. Mount Carmel and St. Stanislaus schools have not yet reported closings. Magnet middle school Thomas Edison was originally not scheduled to begin classes until Thursday, Sept. 1.

Public school students will not have to make up the day lost, Hughes said, as the district works one extra day into the year for school closings. Any other closings following Monday, though, will have to be made up in the summer or during vacations.

Meriden public schools superintendant Mark Benigni and his staff made the call on Saturday after discussing the status of the looming storm with nearby districts on a conference call.

Hughes said another reason the decision was made today was to ensure that local families would get the message in case the storm knocks out electric and phone lines.

"Parents need to know how to plan for this thing," he said.

The Meriden school administration has been airing television commercials this month on the importance of being ready for the school year to begin and arriving on time on Aug. 29.

"Apparently Irene didn’t see the commercial," Hughes quipped Saturday.

Details to come

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