WESTPORT — “Winter” is officially little more than a month old, but the school district’s calendar is under pressure because Westport schools already have been closed four times in the new year.

The four closures have eaten into the six “snow days” included in the calendar for this academic year, which initially was scheduled to end June 16, according to Supt. of Schools Thomas Scarice.

The first cancellation took place Jan. 3, when Scarice delayed students’ scheduled return to classes by a day after the break for an “emergency staff-only” session because of the sharp rise in Omicron infections.

Schools were closed three other days this month  — Jan. 5, 7 and 20 — because winter weather created hazardous travel conditions.

The superintendent noted that if additional snow days are booked beyond the six days built into the calendar (June 17-24), make-up days will require using April vacation days, beginning with Monday, April 18. 

Addressing apparent backlash over the latest decision to call off classes last Thursday, Scarice called it “most frustrating” in a statement issued Saturday.

Based on the forecast early Thursday, he said, it appeared the weather would be similar to the Jan. 5 scenario, with early precipitation freezing over and covered by snow. A two-hour delay initially announced for the start of classes that day caused two faculty members to have auto accidents en route to school — “one ‘totaling’ a car” — before the decision was made to close schools for the day.

The forecast last Thursday, Scarice explained “called for the same dangerous conditions, thus the decision to close.”

Because of the cumulative impact of four school-day cancellations so far, Scarice is recommending the Board of Education amend the full academic year’s calendar from 182 days to 181 “as a result of the emergency day I called for on Jan. 3.”

That change is proposed “since non-certified staff were asked to report on Jan. 3, and maintaining the 182 [day] student calendar would warrant an additional unplanned paid day to these employees since it would take them one day beyond their contractual work calendar,” Scarice said.