The long, eventful 2023-2024 school year will come to an end during the last week of June.
The School Committee approved Superintendent Anna Nolin’s end-of-year calendar proposal factoring in new school closing dates agreed upon when the strike ended in February.
“Luckily, there were no days of inclement weather this year,” Nolin said at Tuesday night’s School Committee meeting. “However, there were the 11 days of the strike period.”
Four of those 11 days were made up during what was supposed to be February vacation. The other seven days were added to the end of the school year, bringing the last day of school from June 14 to June 26 for most students.
Franklin Elementary School will be open for one extra day, because that school was closed for a day when a staff member had a medical emergency.
Here’s a rundown of whose last day falls on what date:
- Newton Early Childhood Program students, June 25
- Kindergarten through 12th grade students, June 26
- Teachers in both NECP and kindergarten through 12th grade, June 27
- Franklin Elementary School students, June 27 (half day)
- Franklin Elementary School teachers, June 28
In Massachusetts, students are required to have 180 days of school per academic year. In terms of hours, kindergarten students are required to get 425 hours of school per academic year; elementary students must get 900 hours; and high school students must get 990 hours.
The days and hours requirements are not negotiable in the law, and the schools can only go until June 30.
That led the School Committee to cancel February break this year in order to fit in the required number of days before June 30, and they were eyeing the possibility of scrapping April vacation, too, if needed.
Fortunately for Newton families, the weather this winter was merciful, and no snow days were added to an already messy school calendar.