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Still No School in the Poconos

EAST STROUDSBURG — It’s been days since classrooms at school districts throughout Monroe County have been filled with students and teachers. Some sc...

EAST STROUDSBURG -- It's been days since classrooms at school districts throughout Monroe County have been filled with students and teachers.

Some schools have been turned into warming stations after two blizzards dumped piles of snow and left thousands without power in less than a week.

Parents are wondering when the lost time will be made up.

"They'll be going until September so it's not good all around, but I mean what can you do really?" said Joseph Christian, Stroudsburg.

"We are sending them Monday whether they have school or not," said Jim Hunter, East Stroudsburg.

East Stroudsburg Area School District has buildings in both Monroe and Pike Counties, two areas hit the hardest with snow and power outages.

Officials say they have been out to several communities to see which roads are clear and who has power.

"When we look at our district boundary, we are all one district. We have to make decisions that are for the benefit of the greater number of students. In this case, having several thousand that could potentially not attend school was a great factor in our decision to close," said Eric Forsyth, East Stroudsburg Area School District.

This winter, about 12 snow days in total have been used for many schools throughout the county.

Eric Forsyth is the administrative director at East Stroudsburg and says the plan is to add missed days on to the end of the year.

"In each school calendar that we publish, we indicate that any day up and until June 30th could be a school day," said Forsyth.

Many district administrators even reached out to local state representatives for help.

"A lot of our input comes from constant communication with our local representatives as well of other public officials including the office of emergency services, our township road masters and others," said Forsyth.

Newswatch 16 spoke to State Senator Mario Scavello who says the state secretary of education is planning to work with districts on relief days for those who apply for them.

The goal is to have classes back in session on Monday.

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