Attendance at public schools this week—which originally was scheduled as a full vacation week—is down about 20 percent the normal rate, district officials say.
Asked for the figures and for a comment on them, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Mary Kolek told Patch that the schools would expect pre-planned vacations put in place prior to the academic year’s very unusual weather events has a lot to do with the drop-off.
“This is an extraordinary year and we hope that it’s an outlier year,” Kolek said.
Hurricane Sandy and a series of winter storms—including one that prevented district workers, including school bus drivers, from getting to work—wreaked havoc on the academic calendar. This week originally was meant to be April break, but the weather prompted the Board of Education to make Monday through Wednesday school days. The last day of school, a half-day, is scheduled to be Friday, June 21. The most up-to-date school calendar is attached as a PDF.
There’s no discernible difference in absence rates from school-to-school.
“It just seems to be a district pattern,” Kolek said.
For example, here’s how the schools broke down in terms of attendance on Tuesday April 2 and yesterday, April 16:
- New Canaan High School: 95 percent (April 2), 78 percent (April 16)
- Saxe Middle School: 95, 76
- East School: 94, 73
- South School: 94, 73
- West School: 95, 71
Parents told school administrators ahead of time when they were able to change vacation plans as well as when they couldn’t Kolek said.
“I do appreciate that everyone tries to make the best of what is an extraordinary circumstance,” she said. “We understand that some people were unable to change their plans. They notified us and they are trying to make arrangements so that students can continue to learn when they are on vacation or certainly do have the expectation that when they do come back, that they are going to continue to study.”
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