The Brighton Area Schools will be making up lost classroom time caused by too many snow days at the end of the school year in June. The district was informed last week by the state that it must make up instructional days that were lost because it has surpassed the limit of snow days allowed.

The state permits six “snow days” per school year, and requires school districts to make up any beyond the six allowed, unless they are granted a waiver. But because Brighton had negotiated a contract with its teachers union requiring 175 classroom days before the state-mandated 180-day minimum went into effect, its request for a waiver was denied.

Superintendent Greg Gray says students in the 7th through 12 grades will have a full day of school on Friday, June 7th, and a half-day on Monday, June 10th, whereas kids in junior kindergarten through 6th grade will have full days on June 7th and 10th and a half-day on June 11th. However, it’s only mid-March, and Gray says more makeup days will have to be tacked on if there are any more snow days.

In the other four K-12 public school districts in Livingston County, the requests for waivers on the six snow day maximum were granted by the state, except in the case of Pinckney, which was granted one of the two days for which the district applied. Section 101 of the State School Aid Act requires that each public school district in the state have 1,098 classroom hours and 180 days of instruction. The 180 days is an increase that went into effect in 2016.

The 5-year contract between the Brighton Area Schools and its teachers union requiring 175 instructional days is set to expire this year, and the 180-day minimum will necessarily have to be part of any new contract that is negotiated. (TT)