Tolland BOE Schedules School on Veterans Day

The Tolland Board of Education held a special meeting on Thursday night to make alterations to the school calendar, since Tolland schools have already lost eight school days this year, five of them due to the severity of this past weekend's snow storm.

At the well-attended meeting, the board decided to follow Superintendent William Guzman's recommendation to make November 10 a half day for students and to change November 11, Veterans Day, to a full school day. November 10 was orginally designated as an in-service day for teachers, who now will be meeting for two hours in the afternoon after students leave school. Other in-service days will be scheduled throughout the calendar to recover the lost hours, according to Guzman.

Guzman said that the changes will help the district catch up on missed days while fulfilling the obligations of staff and union contracts. He also said that some sort of veterans recognition will take place during the school day next Friday.

The school calendar, which typically loses three to four days due to snow each winter, will likely undergo further alterations when the new school board is elected. Guzman said that he called Thursday night's meeting to take advantage of the upcoming opportunities to catch up, and that the board will most likely take another look at the calendar in December.

"We can always come back," he said.

Teachers, who typically get Veteran's Day off as a holiday, will either be offered a floating holiday to use at their discretion or will receive a unified holiday later in the year, according to Guzman.

The school year is shaping up to be another scheduling nightmare; Tolland schools missed 11 days last year and were in session until the last Monday in June.

According to Connecticut law, public schools must meet 180 days and have 900 hours of instruction for students, Guzman said.