Schools

Spring Break 2013 Could be Moved to Later on in April

Officials waiting to hear when students will take annual NJASK exam.

Education officials are waiting to determine when to schedule the district’s annual spring recess in 2013.

As the district’s 2012-2013 calendar is currently constituted, schools will be closed the first week of April, but that could change depending on if and when students will have to take the state’s Assessment of Skills and Knowledge exam.

“We’re trying to see when that test will be administered,” said Trustee Robyn Kingston. “When we’re notified of when, that’s when we’ll make a decision.”

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Superintendent Ray Gonzalez could not be reached for comment.

Until this year, third- through eighth-graders were required to take the test under the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), but that could change. New Jersey has been allowing the state to bypass the rules and regulations of NCLB. The waver also gives state education officials greater freedom in developing systems of student accountability. Officials advocated that the existing standardized testing benchmarks to be abolished in the state’s required annual NCLB application.

Find out what's happening in Waynewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

District officials have also discussed moving the week off to later in the month because school will already not be in session on March 29, Good Friday.

Board President Donald Pavlak Jr. also noted at the last Board meeting that leaving the week in its current slot would also mean that students and teachers wouldn’t have a day off from the second week in April to Memorial Day, May 27.

Officials could discuss the matter at the next Board meeting Feb. 16. The meeting will be held in the council chamber in the .

In other Board news, a special presentation on going to an eight-period long day in both the middle schools and high schools will be given at the meeting.

Officials examined moving to an eight-period day in and earlier this year, but "felt that it did not have enough time to assess the impacts in terms of electives, what the impacts would be to higher-level students, what the impacts would be to lower-level students and their needs for remediation," then-board President Robert Ceberio said.


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