SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Now that the new bill capping the maximum temperatures in classrooms has been signed into law, school leaders are faced with working to find ways to make it a reality.
District leaders like Central Square Superintendent Tom Colabufo are working on finding days they can use to make up for any upcoming heat days they may incur. School districts are required to provide 180 days of learning every year, so if they use their allotted snow days, that could mean using teacher development days or even pulling time from other breaks.
“If this goes into effect September 1 of 2025, we’re going to have to look at the instructional calendar and look at things like a February break, a mid-winter recess and say is that really a good use of vacation time when we still have to meet the 180 threshold. We could look at things like Spring break. We could look at time when right now we’re giving vacations when it’s not exceedingly hot and we may have to start school later and end school earlier,” said Colabufo…