After a two-day delay caused by power outages and road closing from Hurricane Irene, summer vacation will finally end Wednesday for many Harford County's 38,000 public school students.
Some students will, however, get a least one more day away from the books.
Harford County Public Schools announced Tuesday evening that all schools and offices would open Wednesday, except for the following 11 schools: George D. Lisby at Hillsdale Elementary in Aberdeen, Roye-Williams Elementary in Oakington, North Harford Elementary, Youth's Benefit Elementary in Fallston, John Archer School, Aberdeen Middle, Fallston Middle, North Harford Middle, Alternative Education Program at CEO in Aberdeen, Fallston High and North Harford High.
Classes are also canceled Wednesday for non-public placement students.
It was also announced gradual entrance for kindergarten will take place Wednesday, while pre-K classes begin Friday and early intervention programs begin next Tuesday.
In a news release, the school system advised parents to expect variations in bus pick-up and drop off times as new routes are worked through. Parents should also be aware that students living on streets that are still closed may not be able to receive bus transportation Wednesday.
County government spokesperson Bob Thomas said 22 county roads were still closed as of 6 p.m. Tuesday and most, if not all, were along bus pick-up routes.
School officials were still meeting late Tuesday afternoon to decide upon a course of action. At the time, school system spokesperson Teri Kranefeld said seven or eight schools still did not have power.
In an e-mail after the school system announced classes would start Wednesday, Kranefeld wrote that "power outages and large numbers of road closures in those areas" were the determining factor in which schools did not open Wednesday.
In addition to students, Wednesday will be the first day a new school year for many of Harford's 2,800 teachers. The school system hired 175 new teachers over the summer.
And, it will also be the first day of classes for 700 students in the new Red Pump Elementary School north of Bel Air, which was completed over the summer.
Red Pump is the first new additional elementary school to open in the county since Forest Lakes opened between Bel Air and Forest Hill in 1997. In the intervening years, two elementary schools were rebuilt, Forest Hill which reopened in 2000 and Deerfield in Edgewood which reopened a year ago.
As is often the case, a number of Harford schools at all levels are opening this week with new principals, most notably Aberdeen and Joppatowne high schools, whose previous principals were demoted last spring, and Fallston High School, whose principal was promoted over the summer.
The new principal at Joppatowne is Pamela Zeigler, who replaced Macon Tucker, now an assistant principal at Patterson Mill High School. The new principal at Aberdeen is Michael O'Brien, who replaced Tom Szerensits, now an assistant principal at Bel Air High.
Richard Jester is the new principal at Fallston High School, replacing Joseph Schmitz, who is now executive director of high school performance.
The decision to finally start school Wednesday dragged out well into Tuesday afternoon.
The first day back for the 2011-12 school year was postponed Monday and again on Tuesday because of power outages in a majority of school buildings, non-functioning traffic lights and trees blocking roads along bus routes.
Once the remnants of Irene cleared out of the area Sunday, there was little doubt the Harford schools could not begin classes as scheduled Monday morning.
More than half the county's 54 school buildings were without power and bus routes were going to be affected, so the school system announced Sunday evening that the first day would be delayed.
During a post-Irene briefing for the press at the county Emergency Operations Center Monday morning, Superintendent Robert Tomback said it was still hard to assess the situation because so many school buildings were without power and so many bus routes were affected by road closures.
"We know we have lots and lots of disappointed students, and even more disappointed parents, that schools didn't open on time," Tomback joked.
The school system announced a few hours later that classes would be canceled again Tuesday, also sending out an alert on its website.
Cecil back Tuesday
Cecil County Public Schools, which also canceled classes Monday and one day last week as well, reopened for students and teachers Tuesday.
Also late Monday afternoon, a notice was put up on the Cecil County Public Schools website saying that schools would reopen Tuesday at their regularly scheduled time.
The first day of school for Cecil County was supposed to be Aug. 24, but was postponed until last Thursday because of the Aug. 23 earthquake, which permitted a full inspection of all buildings.
Cecil schools did open for the year Thursday, and students went Friday, as well; however, classes were canceled Monday because of widespread power outages and road closings following the hurricane.
According to an email from Assistant in Administration Kelly Keeton, "Our [Cecil County Public Schools] calendar committee developed a calendar whereby make-up days are built into account for missed days. Dec. 22 and Jan. 20 are days that will now be used to account for the two days we have missed as a result of the earthquake and hurricane."