On December 11th, the Gloucester School Committee decided that the 10 missed school days, which were a result of the teacher strike in November, will be made up during February break and the end of June.
Prior to their meeting on December 11th, the School Committee sent surveys to Gloucester families asking for their input. According to the committee, the majority of the 340 responses were in favor of using February break to make up for some of the lost days.
“By missing school in November, we lost some of our most productive learning days in the year. In deciding on using February and June, we are prioritizing having full learning days and having longer periods without interruption,” Superintendent Ben Lummis said in a statement to families. “Unfortunately, there is no single solution that will work for every family.”
In Massachusetts, the school year cannot surpass June 30th. This means that snow days would be made up over April break, depending on how many school cancellations there are this winter.
“Using the four days in February vacation makes sense to me and then using six days in June makes sense,” UGE Co-President Rachel Rex said. “Honestly that leaves two more school days in June, the 27th and June 30th, in case there are snow days. I would prefer using those days before taking any April school vacation days.”
Under the Return to Work agreement, union members cannot take any personal or unpaid days during the make-up days.
“I find it somewhat offensive that the School Committee takes no responsibility for the strike,” Rex said.
The strike has also had an impact on midterms as they are no longer in the middle of January, but are instead on February 10th-12th.
“I don’t like that we’re going so late into June, but I don’t mind each individual term being pushed back,” junior Mylee Towne said.
Additionally information regarding the makeup days can be found here.
