Longwood, Sachem school districts cut February recess

The Longwood school district will make up days lost to superstorm Sandy by holding school during the traditional February midwinter recess, according to district Superintendent Michael Lonergan.

Longwood schools will be open the week after Presidents Day, on Feb. 19-22.

The Sachem school board also voted to keep schools open the week after Presidents' Day, as well as April 1, to make up for lost school days, according to the district website.

Lonergan said if there are no more snow days used for the rest of the year, the school’s schedule should remain intact.

“If it does not snow again between now and when the tulips come up, we’ll be able to extend the Memorial Day weekend” with a day off on May 24, he said.

The Longwood school district decided to make up the four Sandy days during February and not during later school holidays.

“By law school districts are not permitted to schedule makeup days after the Regents exams, which are usually the third or fourth week in June, so you’re not going to see any schools do that,” he said. “After that we made the decision to look at the February break, which is a benign time of year — no religious observations fall during that week.”

Lonergan said the district will work with any students or staff that had existing vacation plans for the February break.

More than half of Long Island’s 124 public school districts have said they either have canceled or are considering canceling all or part of the midwinter break.

US Airways, JetBlue, Delta and American Airlines have announced that they will waive their change fees for customers who booked tickets for travel during February’s midwinter break.