Summer vacation will start early for some students in our area. Others will have a full Easter break for the first time in years because they didn't use all their snow days.
We are getting to that time of the school year when students start tallying and crossing off the calendar until the last day of class.
This year there are fewer days to count for many districts in Lackawanna County.
At Valley View in Archbald, administrators budgeted for at least three snow days but used none. It was the same in the nearby Mid-Valley district, something Superintendent Randy Parry said hasn't happened in recent memory.
"Because of our construction project, the sooner we could get our students out for the summer gives us a bigger construction window through the 11-week summer period. So, by doing this we're getting out a week early which buys us an extra week for the construction project," Parry said.
High school students from several different districts attended a computer fair at Keystone College in La Plume Wednesday. Some students now have a shorter school year or a longer spring break. Either way, plans for those bonus days were a big topic of discussion.
"Sleep in, definitely," said Katrina Catocho, a senior at Valley View.
"I'm just going to travel. I have friends all over so I'll go see them and just have a good time," added Matt Magdon of Valley View.
Several school districts in Lackawanna County are getting creative with their end of the year schedule. In the North Pocono School District, instead of shortening the school year, students will have three Fridays off in April and May.
At Valley View, administrators said students will have a full Easter break for the first time in several years. Students will also have a long weekend in early May and then a four-day break for Memorial Day.
"The last few days we went over our amount of snow days so they always cut off the break instead of adding days on the end of the year. And, so to finally have a full break is good for us," said Valley View sophomore Calvin Soulsby.
"I think it's great that we're actually utilizing those days and putting them toward the end of the school year, because toward the end I think students tend to lose track of their school work and this is a refreshing bit for the students," added Nick Frontino of Valley View.
Many school districts in Lackawanna County opted to keep the date of graduation the same, even with the excess of days. Many superintendents said the schedule changes are still tentative, they're playing it safe just in case there's a spring snowstorm.