BY RYAN O’CONNOR

Though the Bow, Dunbarton and Hopkinton school districts missed only one day of school over the winter, the month of April has proven to be more costly than usual in terms of missed class time.

This year, April showers will bring additional school days in June.

Hopkinton

On Tuesday, April 17, Harold Martin Elementary School students missed their fourth school day in April, after losing power the day before and having one of the valves on the boiler malfunction once power was restored.

Maple Street Elementary School and Hopkinton Middle/High School resumed scheduled classes, thus missing three days in the month, for a total of four days.

Hopkinton High School graduation is still set for Saturday, June 9, but for other students, the end of the school year has been pushed back almost a week, from Thursday, June 14, to Wednesday, June 20.

“If we look at the year, overall, in terms of the number of days missed, it’s pretty normal. When we build our calendar, you kind of expect you’re going to use ‘X’ number of days,” said Hopkinton Superintendent Brian Blake. “I think if we would had a snowy winter and then all this rain, and we’re talking about eight or nine days out, we would be in a different situation. But the fact that we made it into April and hadn’t really missed any school proved good for us.”

Blake did note, however, that students have been affected in other ways.

“It hasn’t changed much in terms of when we plan to get out, but the weather has really wreaked havoc on sports,” he said. “By now I’m guessing we should have had six or seven baseball games. We’ve only had one and the softball team hasn’t even played yet.”

Bow

Currently, graduation for Bow High School will remain June 16, though district Superintendent Kathleen Holt said New England weather often changes plans.

“Of course, last year we had two flood days in May, which you can’t really plan on, so it’s hard to define what’s normal?” said Holt, speaking of losing days to rain and wind in addition to the anticipated snow days each year.

This year, Bow students will make up at least two school days and maybe three, depending on what the district decides to do about Monday, April 16, in which students were sent home shortly after 9 a.m. due to a loss of power.

The final day of school was originally set for June 14, but will now go into the next week, though Holt said she it has yet to be decided if or for how long students will attend classes on June 19.

Dunbarton

Dunbarton Elementary School Principal Brent Rogers said, as of yet, he is unsure if students will have to attend make-up days for lost class time.

Though Dunbarton is part of the Goffstown School District, Betty Ann Noyes, Dunbarton School Board member, said the elementary school missed an additional day because of lost power, but had classes Tuesday, April 17, when Goffstown had no classes, which she hopes will put the elementary school back on schedule with the rest of SAU 19.