Roofs Safe, not April Vacation

The East Hampton High School Board of Education met Wednesday to discuss, among other things, the impact the winter has had on the school year and the school facilities.

As if there was not enough problems with the snow already, the high school was now experiencing serious leaking from its roof.

"It's kind of a mess and we will fix it and it will get repaired," superintendent of schools Dr. Judith Golden said. "We ask everyone to bear with us. This has been an extraordinary winter."

She later characterized the mess as, "A pretty big amount of damage."

Some classrooms have been closed, and on Tuesday the leaking continued and appeared to be more widespread.

The good news is that the roofs on all schools are safe. The roofs were able to bear the load of snow that was on them. However, it was suggested that because some spots were getting a heavier load due to drifting, the snow be removed.

According to Golden, the high school and Center School are mostly clear, the clearing of Memorial School began Monday and the Middle School is being cleared, with the gym done.

As for the amount of snow days, the last day of school is still June 17 with the exception of Memorial and Center. The two elementary schools did not have class on Friday for precautionary reasons. Their last day will be June 20.

As mandated by the state, the school year must be completed by the end of June.

Keeping the last day of school on track, and to avoid going deeper into June, has come with a price. The plan is to cancel April vacation (April 17-21). Good Friday, April 22 of the vacation week, will still be observed.

Gaining those four days of school only addresses snow days that have occurred. Should there be another, the board voted to allow the superintendent to move the April 15 Professional Development day to the end of the school year, after students have completed their 180 days.

Should there be more than one snow day still to come, the school year will probably have to be extended.

One concern with extending the school year beyond June 17 is that the high school graduation is scheduled for that day followed by the Project Graduation party.

"We're trying to do the best we can to get seniors graduated on the 17th," Golden said.

The calendar, which targeted April vacation for snow day make-ups, was approved on Dec. 14.

The problems this winter has brought to bear on the district will come with another price, literally.

"This will be 10s of thousands of dollars, the roof cleaning, contractors to get parking lots cleared, but especially the roof cleaning," Golden said." I don't even want to estimate until I get the bill. There will be several bills because there is several contractors.