By Jason Klaiber
Staff Writer
Enders Road Elementary School will account for lost instructional time by holding a partial day of classes at the tail end of the school year.
Extending into the elementary school’s previously scheduled summer vacation by one day, classes will be held on June 26 and dismissed at 11:35 a.m.
The school, part of the Fayetteville-Manlius district, used up a day of state-required instruction on Nov. 29 for cleanup after a small fire in the building. The fire, which occurred the day before, was caused by a malfunction in the electrical panels near the hallway containing the music room and cafeteria.
“It was quickly extinguished, but we were worried about the smoke damage and ventilation in the building,” Superintendent Craig J. Tice said.
Separately, the district took advantage of the five emergency closures it budgets yearly. These were due to a coastal storm on Nov. 16, icy conditions on both Jan. 8 and Jan. 23, wind chill on Jan. 31 and sleet and freezing rain on Feb. 12.
“We can’t afford to have buses out in those conditions,” Tice said.
He said the safety of the students is the biggest factor in deciding to close on a given school day.
“We understand our duty,” Tice said. “We do budget some in because we know we cannot control the weather or predict it, but at the same time we try to use them judiciously throughout the course of the entire year.”
Like the Jamesville-DeWitt School District, Fayetteville-Manlius allots two closings for the Jewish holidays Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, unless they fall on weekends.
Other districts that don’t recognize those two holidays typically reserve a total of seven snow days instead.
Four of the school year’s 180 days can be credited through staff development as well. The state requires students to be in session for the remaining 176 days. Last year, the district similarly used up its five snow days for the first time since the 2013-2014 school year, when Corliss Kaiser still served as superintendent.
