By Linda Conner Lambeck

WESTPORT — More snow days or not, the Board of Education has set Tuesday, June 13, as graduation date for the Staples High School Class of 2023.

The board, meeting remotely Tuesday — which happened to be the school district’s first snow day of the season — voted unanimously to set the date. The board took advantage of a state statute that allows districts to establish a firm graduation date for high school seniors on or after the 180^th day of the school calendar originally adopted for that school year.

Supt. of Schools Thomas Scarice said the intent is to have the ceremony outdoors. There will be a rain date of June 14.

“Graduations historically in Connecticut have been a moving target for communities,” Scarice said. “Kind of waiting until the snow season ended before we could determine what the graduation date would be.”

That is because state law requires districts be in session at least 180 days. Westport has a 182-day school year for students and its 2022-23 school calendar had designated June 15 as the last day of classes, barring no snow days.

Scarice said the graduation date uncertainty is a burden on seniors and their families particularly as some colleges have begun to move freshman orientation from August to the end of June. The later school ends, the more likely that graduation and college orientation could coincide.

That prompted the state legislative change, Scarice said.

“So in future years, are we going to try and do this the same way?” asked board Secretary Neil Phillips.

“Definitely in the future,” said Scarice.

Even with four or five snow days, Scarice said graduation can go forward, on or after what was planned as the 180th day of the school year.

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.