JONESPORT, Maine - Public schools Downeast were closed again Wednesday, as the region dug out from yet another snow storm. The record snowfall in Maine this winter has made it a banner year for school closures. A bill before the Maine Legislature would allow schools to tack on extra hour of daily seat time, for up to 25 days, as a way of making up all the missed time. It's an appealing option in some parts of Washington County.
Think back to when you were a kid and there was a major snowstorm: School would be called off. And you'd get a free day to watch movies, hangout with your buddies. Sounds kind of fun, right? By this logic, students at Jonesport Beals High School should be having a blast.
Jay Field: "I'm going to say a word and I want you to say what comes into your mind: 'snow day.' "
Catherine McDonald: "Too many!"
Kaylee Alley: "No."
Ben Beale: "No."
That, in order of appearance, is Catherine McDonald, Kali Alley and Ben Beale. McDonald and Alley are seniors, Beale is a junior and all three have had it with the record-setting snowfall that's covered Washington County this winter like a suffocating blanket.
The Jonesport Beals area doesn't have the roughly 100 inches that's buried Eastport and Lubec. But there's still 4 to 5 feet on the ground - enough to shut down the high school for a record seven days so far this winter.
"The law says 175 school days," says Mike Kelley, the principal at Jonesport Beals High. "We have to have 175 school days, with kids. So that's why we have to, right now, make those up."
Schools often do this by holding classes on Saturdays and adding days to the school calendar in June. But tacking on extra days like this can be problematic. Allison Willard has taught math at Jonesport Beals High for 25 years.
"We're into June. People are tired. Their attention is gone," Willard says. "It's hard to keep things moving and rolling on a normal school year. And going this late is going to be that much more difficult."
Especially for one group of students. Jonesport is home to a sizable lobster fishing fleet. The high school has five students taking part in the Eastern Maine Skippers Program, which prepares them to go into the lobster industry full time, after graduating.
"I gotta get my traps ready and I have to get all my stuff in the water," says sophomore Jacob Kirby, who already has his own lobster boat. "I need just as much time as possible in the summer to make money. And I'll just miss out on lobsters."
Senior Catherine McDonald worries about the summer job she has lined up. "I go to a camp and work. I have to be there by a certain day. And if I can't be there, then I don't get a job. I think it's the 25th, or something like that."
The last day of classes at Jonesport Beals High is now scheduled for Tuesday June 23. But winter isn't over and the date could get pushed back even further. Concern over the situation has pushed one Washington County lawmaker to sponsor a bill to give schools another option. Rep. Will Tuell is a Republican from East Machias.
"Under the bill, a school would be able to add an hour to the school day. Five extended school days would equal one make-up day," Tuell says.
The bill would allow schools to make up as many as five days in this way. At Jonesport Beals, administrators, teachers and students say this option makes sense. But the union representing the state's public school teachers has concerns. Lois Kilby-Chesley, is president of the Maine Education Association. She testified against the bill at a public hearing.
"Child care problems arise when student schedules change," Kilby-Chesley said. "Our members anticipate that extending the day will cause problems for their families and the families they serve."
Kilby-Chesley questions whether it's appropriate to force elementary school students to go to school for an extra hour a day. And at the high school level, Kilby-Chesley wonders, how would athletics be affected? In exceptional circumstances, school boards can ask Maine's education commissioner to waive the 175-day school year requirement. The Maine Department of Education is not taking a position on the bill.