Many parents were scratching their heads, wondering why there was a reversal in plans to keep Cumberland County Schools open Monday – Eclipse Day.  Originally, the plan was to keep schools open and give the students an excused absence for the day if parents wished to keep the kids home.  This seemed to be a pretty good compromise for most.  Yesterday, the announcement came around 6:30pm that schools would be closed Monday.  Apparently there had been a lot of pressure from parents to close schools.  The DOS had issued a text to school personnel that due to ‘challenges posed’ the decision had been made to close schools Monday.   Those challenges included not just an overwhelming number of parents calling for the closure,  but also safety of the students during the eclipse.  If school was in session normally,  there would be more than seven-thousand students in the system that must be supervised during the eclipse viewing to make sure no one removes their solar filter glasses and risk damaging their eyes.  Now, given the option of going to school or not Monday, that number would be reduced significantly of course – but nevertheless the school system doesn’t want even one student to be harmed from viewing the eclipse.  Also there was some confusion among some students as to which students had to show up no matter what.  For example, students who were working toward perfect attendance would be required to come to school for a ‘half day’ and could leave around 11am.

The missed day will count against the allotted ‘snow days’ the system has for the year.  After talking with Central Services, it appears there were several factors involved in making the decision to close Monday with the safety of the students at the top of the list.