From the Superintendent's newsletter: Twice in the past two weeks we have had storms that have hit the region in the early morning commuting hours. Orono schools do not currently have the option of delayed starts and so both times I needed to cancel school due to the icy conditions. Likewise, once students are at school, if the weather turns bad we do not call an early release, thereby sending kids home early. This has been our long-standing practice and as I understand it is very much related to families having trouble with childcare coverage on these types of days. Despite this, I have recently heard from many of you about your wishes for delayed starts. Specifically, when the weather presents slick conditions early on, but holds the promise of turning better later in the morning. In addition, there has been a lot of discussion about the need for additional professional time for our staff to work on curriculum, instruction and assessment and to collaborate more deeply as we work to provide the very best for students. One thought is to build regular early release days into next year’s calendar for this work. On Tuesday, March 8, 2016 the School Board will be considering this topic, so please plan to attend. ALSO, please give us your input by completing this short survey. Here is a survey from our superintendent about rethinking weather related delay/early dismissals as well as early release days. https://docs.google.com/a/rsu26.org/forms/d/1N9yTLnEFgSfTUB2cpG8CJq_ll3YhBu1VYX5Hs61hjzI/viewform?pli=1 -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Orono Parents" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [log in to unmask] For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. ######################################################################## To unsubscribe from the FRIENDS-OF-ORONO-SCHOOLS list, click the following link: http://lists.maine.edu/cgi/wa?SUBED1=FRIENDS-OF-ORONO-SCHOOLS&A=1