TCAPS Confirms June 14 As the Last Day of School

After months of questions about whether Traverse City Area Public Schools (TCAPS) would need to make up an unprecedented number of snow days, the district has confirmed that the last day of the 2018-19 school year will be June 14, as originally scheduled.

The TCAPS school calendar typically runs through mid-June and ends with a half day. This year, however, that standard schedule was thrown into doubt by the 11 snow days TCAPS called throughout the winter. The state automatically waives six snow days, but anything beyond that number is expected to be made up at the end of the year. In February, after snow day number 10, TCAPS Superintendent Paul Soma raised the possibility of school running through June 21.

To avoid an extra week of school, TCAPS requested (and received) a waiver from the state to forgive an additional three snow days. That left two outstanding cancellations to make up. Thanks to a piece of recently-passed legislation, though, TCAPS will be permitted to waive the two additional days. The legislation forgives any snow days that occurred between January 29 and February 1, a four-day stretch during which Governor Gretchen Whitmer declared a State of Emergency. These snow days do not count toward district totals.

TCAPS also says it is “working with leaders of hourly employee groups to identify additional work and/or training options for hourly employees impacted by the number of snow days this year.”