Hayley Buerhaus, 5, builds a snowman in her front yard in Auburn on Wednesday. Buerhaus, a kindergarten student at Fairview Elementary School, had a snow day and did not have to go to school.
As the snow days for students pile up, June dismissal is getting later.
So far, Lewiston schools have used four snow days, the last one Tuesday.
On Wednesday, schools had a late start to allow roads to be cleared.
If another snow day is used Thursday, that would make five and push the last day of school to June 19.
“We’ve had years before where it’s been June 20,” Superintendent Bill Webster. “I hope it doesn’t get much later.”
Auburn is scheduled to dismiss students June 19, because it has used five snow days, Superintendent Katy Grondin said.
In the past five years, Auburn schools have used between two and five snow days each year.
Auburn didn’t have schools open Wednesday because a late-start was needed for roads to be cleared, and it was a regularly scheduled half-day for lower grades. A late start and early release would have meant younger students would only be in school about an hour, not enough to count for a school day.
School was called off Wednesday for the upper grades because having younger students home and older students in class would make it difficult for families, Grondin said.
Sabattus-Litchfield-Wales schools had only used two snow days as of Wednesday, which would make the last day of school June 16, Regional School Unit 4 Superintendent Jim Hodgkin said.
“If we cancel school (Thursday) that will be three for us,” he said. “Our last day then becomes June 19.”
Diana Pontbriand and her grandchildren, JuJu Farrington, 6, and Royer Pontbriand, 2, hike through fresh snow after sledding behind Pontbriand’s house in Auburn on Wednesday. Farrington and her brother, Dustin, are students at Hebron Station School. They had the day off because school was canceled because of a snowstorm.