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Schools

Hopatcong 2013-14 School Calendar a Lock

Board shifts spring break to the week before Easter.

The Board of Education approved a tentative 2013-14 school calendar  Monday that will  shift the spring break to the week before Easter.

The change was made to allow seventh and eighth grade  students facing mandatory state exams to have a full week of instruction prior to taking the tests, said school board president Clifford Lundin.

Without the change, he said, those students would taking the exams after being out of school for 10 days.

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“We made the change to benefit the students,” Lundin said.

He said Hopatcong is the only Sussex County school so far to deviate from the general calendar set by the Sussex County Board of Education. That calendar includes the plans of all schools, including Sussex County Vocational-Technical School, which draws students from the entire county.

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The vacation switch will cost Hopatcong extra transportation funds since busing rates are based on full buses.

Lundin said the 2013-14 calendar includes 180 days of instruction and 185 days for teachers. The calendar includes four snow days, which if not used, would be deducted from the schedule  as needed as the year  progresses, he said.

School will open Sept. 4. Teacher in-service days will be held Sept. 3, Oct. 14, Jan. 20 and June 17 and 18. Graduation is scheduled for June 16.

Friday, Dec. 20 will be a full day of school, while Monday, Dec. 23 will be a half day, with the Christmas break starting that day.  School will reopen Jan. 2.

In the spring, Easter is April 21, so the break will be the previous week, April 14 to 18. School will reopen April 22.

State exams for seventh and eighth graders are scheduled in 2014 between April 28 and May 1 and May 5 to 9.

The board  passed two referendums seeking some support for the calendar change.

The first asked the Sussex County Superintendent’s Roundtable to consider changing the county calendar to mirror’s Hopatcong’s. The second referendum asked the state education commissioner to change the dates set aside for seventh and eighth grader state tests, given the timing of the spring break.

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