Staggered starting dates as LI schools open for September

classes
The first day of school will vary for Long Island's public school students, with five different starting
dates in the 124 districts across Nassau and Suffolk counties -- and five systems opening for classes
as late as Sept. 9.
Students return Sept. 1 in 32 districts, while 47 districts start classes on Sept. 2 and 13 districts on
Sept. 3. After Labor Day, 27 districts start classes on Sept. 8 and five on Sept. 9.
The first continuous five days of classes in the 2015-16 school year will not occur until the week of
Sept. 28, because schedulers had to take into account Labor Day, on Sept. 7, and the Jewish holy
days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
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In addition, the customary spring break period is affected by how the dates of Passover and Easter
fall, with districts splitting the time off into two sections. In many years, those religious days occur
at about the same time.
"It's a difficult calendar to develop this year because of the way the holidays fall," East Rockaway
Superintendent Lisa Ruiz said.
State law requires districts to hold 180 days of school, though some systems have more than that.
Each district does its own scheduling of class days and time allotted for staff development or socalled superintendent's days.
Five districts on the Island -- Plainview-Old Bethpage, Greenport, Sag Harbor, Shelter Island and
Southampton -- will hold their first classes on Sept. 9, the Wednesday after Labor Day.
Lorna Lewis, superintendent of Plainview-Old Bethpage, said the district's contract with teachers
stipulates a start date after Labor Day, which is the latest it can be this year.
"We are kind of unique, and I believe we might be the only district in Nassau that will be beginning
as late as we are," she said.
Teachers there report on Sept. 8 and students arrive Sept. 9. To make up for the time, the district
will not have a February break, which typically runs for a week.
Lewis said the district had a discussion with the teachers union, "but we are honoring their
contract."
A call and email to the Plainview-Old Bethpage Congress of Teachers was not returned.
Lewis said she made parents aware of the 2015-16 schedule two years ago. The school calendar
there runs 181 days.
The East Rockaway district's schedule shows the start-stop nature of the first three weeks. There,
teachers return on Sept. 1 and school begins for the district's approximately 1,200 students on Sept.

2. Schools are closed Sept. 7 for Labor Day, Sept. 14 and 15 for Rosh Hashanah and Sept. 23 for
Yom Kippur.
As for spring break periods, the district has scheduled days off on March 24, 25 and 28 around
Easter, which is March 27. The next month, the district is closed the week of April 25, as Passover
starts at sundown on a Friday -- April 22 -- and ends on April 30. The last day of school is June 23.
Ruiz said the district sought to start instruction earlier by opening on the second day of September.
"Starting after Labor Day -- it is late and you would have to find more days off during the year," she
said. "For us instructionally, the spring has enough interruptions and . . . starting earlier allowed us
to build in instruction."
In East Rockaway, the school calendar runs 182 days, including two teacher conference days.
Islip students return to school on Sept. 2, with teachers returning two days prior.
Susan A. Schnebel, the Islip superintendent and president of the Suffolk County School
Superintendents Association, said this year's calendar "proved to be a challenge for districts across
the state."
She also noted that spring break, which is typically in April, was scheduled with the state's
standardized tests in mind. In Islip, schools will be closed March 24 through 28 and during the last
week of April.
Both Ruiz and Schnebel said they worked with their teachers' unions to develop the schedule.
The last school day for Islip staff is June 24. Regents exams and testing schedules for June are
preset, "which limits our ending time," Schnebel said.
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