AUBURN — School administrators will have more flexibility with calling early dismissals and making up canceled days through policy changes approved Wednesday on first reading by the School Committee.

The policy changes are not sweeping but will allow administrators to dismiss school early in more broad circumstances, taking current language out that limits the situations in which early dismissal can be called, Assistant Superintendent Scott Annear said.

The changes will also allow after-school activities to commence even if school is canceled earlier in the day, which is currently prohibited in the policy, he said.

Sometimes weather conditions change through the course of a day, which might allow after-school activities to commence despite school being canceled in the morning.

The changes also eliminate specific ways in which canceled school days must be made up, which include “conducting classes on weekends, rescheduling or shortening scheduled vacation periods or postponing the close of the school year.”

Instead, under the changes, there would be no specific ways in which administrators are required to make up for those lost days, allowing for more flexibility in how those days are made up, and leaving it up to administrators to determine the best course of action. Those actions still might include the specific methods currently outlined in the policy, Superintendent Sue Dorris said before the meeting Wednesday.

Annear said the school department will work with families on the new early dismissal rules.

A second reading on the policies will be scheduled for an upcoming meeting. The next one is May 21.