The Ocean City Board of Education voted Wednesday to add April 21 to the school calendar to make up for a snow day.
The vote keeps the last day of school and high school graduation on Friday, June 20.
The district had to close schools on five different days this winter because of snow.
“Generally, we think we may have to make up two,” Superintendent Kathleen Taylor said of snow days in typical years.
The last day of school had been scheduled for June 17. The district made up one day by adding March 17 (originally a teacher’s in-service day) back to the school calendar. The end of the school year was then pushed back to June 20 to make up for three more days.
That left the school board with a choice to make up for the fifth day: Move graduation and the last day of school to Monday, June 23 or add Monday, April 21 as a school day.
Spring break for students falls during the week before Easter this year, and the Monday following Easter (April 21) was also part of the break.
The board considered a range of factors in making its decision: family plans for attending graduation, teacher and family vacations for spring break, custodian overtime for holidays, an extra day of teaching before AP tests, the chaos of a Friday evening in late June, even students who had purchased tickets for the Firefly Music Festival on June 20 (thinking they would be done school by then).
In the end, citing April 21 as a more likely day for learning than June 23, the board passed the schedule change in a 7-1 vote.
