More Half Days Added to Hopatcong School Calendar

Written by Michael Daigle

The Board of Education approved Monday a revised 2013-14 school calendar.

The changes were made to add teacher in-service days to help the administration and teaching staff work through the school year to understand and implement a new teacher evaluation program that goes into effect in the next school year, said board president  Clifford Lundin.

The changes add several half days to the schedule, Lundin said.

“I don’t like half-days,” he said, “but the teachers need the time to understand the evaluations.”

School will open for students on Sept. 5.

Sept. 3 and 4 will be teacher in-service days.

Other half-day in-service days will be held Sept. 30, Dec. 16, Jan. 13, Feb. 3, March 17, and April 28.

Students will not be in class on Columbus Day, Oct. 14; Veterans Day, Nov. 11; and Martin Luther King Day, Feb. 20. Instead those days will be full-day teacher in-service days.

Thanksgiving recess is Nov. 28 and 29, and a half-day is scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 27.

The winter holiday recess is Dec. 24 to Jan. 1, with a half-day on Monday, Dec. 23.

Spring recess is  April 14 to 18, leading into Easter weekend. Easter is April 20, and school will reopen April 22.

That change was made to give students days of  instruction leading into the mandatory state exams for  middle school students.

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

The last day of classes is June 18.

The calendar calls for 184 days of instruction and four snow days, Lundin said.