Schools amend vacation schedules in wake of Sandy

Long Beach’s school district has amended its vacation schedule to make up for school days lost to superstorm Sandy.

Many of the district’s middle-schoolers, who have been going to school at Long Beach High School, will also return to their normal building next week, a district spokeswoman said.

Long Beach schools will hold classes Feb. 19-22, which had been set aside as winter recess days, the spokeswoman said.

Classes also will take place March 25 and April 1, which had been designated as spring recess days, she said. The March 27 and 28 spring recess days have been designated as possible snow makeup days, she said.

Superintendent David Weiss said the decision to cut vacation days was a difficult one.

“You’d like to make decisions between good options, but sometimes you have to make decisions between bad options,” Weiss said.

The district’s sixth- and seventh-graders will return to the middle school building on Monday, the spokeswoman said. Eighth-graders are scheduled to be back by Dec. 19, she said.

The temporary loss of the middle school, which suffered storm damage, caused crowding issues at the high school, Weiss said.

“They worked through as best as they could,” Weiss said.