By Linda Conner Lambeck

WESTPORT — The 2023-24 school year has yet to begin, but the Staples High School Class of 2024 already has a graduation date the students can count on.

By a unanimous vote Thursday night, the Board of Education voted to amend its academic calendar and schedule the graduation ceremony on Monday, June 10, 2024, with a rain date of June 11.

Westport public schools’ new academic year starts next Tuesday, Aug. 29.

In past years, the district waited until April to set the graduation date, believing it had to be on the last day of the school year, said Assistant Supt. of Schools John Bayers.

Supt. of Schools Thomas Scarice said changes in state legislation allow school districts to set graduation as long as it is scheduled for the 180th day of the school year. That predetermined date can stick regardless of how many school days are cancelled because of the weather.

“This allows schools, families and communities the opportunity to plan,” said Scarice.

Snow days, however, do factor into the end-date for everyone else. The last day of classes remains June 12, 2024, for a 182-day school year if there are no school cancellations.

Up to five snow days would push the end of the school year to June 20. Anything beyond five days would chip away at April vacation, which is set from next April 15 through 19.

Going forward, the school board will be able to set graduation dates when it adopts a school calendar each winter for the following academic year.

Also notable regarding dates, Thursday’s school board meeting was the first of its new meeting schedule, which switched regular meetings from Monday to Thursday nights.

Freelance writer Linda Conner Lambeck, a reporter for more than four decades at the Connecticut Post and other Hearst publications, is a member of the Education Writers Association.