OXFORD – SAD 17 directors may be asked to act on an alternative school calendar that will do away with February and April vacations and make one break in March.

The plan, which was recommended by the calendar committee after a stormy winter threatened to send staff and students to school on Saturdays, will go before school staff members and parents for comments, said Superintendent Mark Eastman.

Lewiston School Superintendent Leon Levesque has also proposed dropping the February and April school vacations and replacing them with a March break, starting in the 2009-2010 school year.

The idea is one that has been given a thumbs up by state Education Commissioner Susan Gendron as being educationally beneficial to students.

In March, most school directors here agreed to amend school policy and allow a two-hour delay, if needed on stormy days. The action was implemented after the school district was faced with its 12th school cancellation day of the past winter.

Under previous policy, directors allowed Eastman to use a 90-minute delay but balked at a two-hour delay, saying it would cut in too deeply into classroom instruction.

There was also concern about being able to hold timely classes with a two-hour delay because of the large geographical area that the 2,200 elementary students and 1,500 middle/high school students are bused from.

Eastman also presented other ideas to the board such as holding Saturday classes, an idea that would have been implemented if needed after 170 of the 325 staff members surveyed said they would prefer that to holding classes during their April vacation.

The last day of school this year is June 20. The calendar originally called for the last day of school to be June 13 this year.