Dec 7, 2015 2 min read

Peters Township School District issued a revised school calendar Monday that gives students a winter break so they can spend time with their families during the upcoming holiday, but pushed the last day of school back to June 22.

Peters Township High School seniors are still scheduled to graduate June 10.

“Families need to be together during the holidays,” Superintendent Jeannine French said.

As of now, there will be no school for staff and students Dec. 24 through Jan. 1. School for all students will resume Monday, Jan. 4.

The district said the calendar set by the state Department of Education following the 21-day strike that ended Nov. 27, did not allow for additional time off, so officials approached the state about allowing a Christmas break.

The district made this move because of requests from parents, as well as the 50 percent attendance rate of students on the first day back from the strike, which was the day after Thanksgiving.

While seniors will still graduate June 10, they will now have to complete five additional days of school from June 13-17 to meet the required days and hours of instruction for graduation. Commencement practice will take place on three Satudays in the spring.

In addition, the district received approval to extend Keystone and PSSA testing windows to allow for additional instructional time before those two exams.

“Our children are stressed out by the exams,” French said.

And the district has asked the state for an exception for the make-up day because of the water main break at the high school and Pleasant Valley Elementary School. If a make-up day is required, then it will be added to the end of the year for these schools.

“In the event of snow days, we can appeal about having to make those up,” French said.

To date, the arbitration process between the district and the Peters Township Federation of Teachers has not yet commenced. Since the two sides have been unable to come to an agreement on a new contract, the matter will go to nonbinding arbitration. The major differences between the the district and the teachers are salaries and health care costs.

If a second strike does take place, it will likely be in the spring and will likely mean changes to the district’s newly released calendar.