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Snowstorm: Absent Boston Students to be Marked 'Constructively Present'

Students will not be counted as being absent today if they did not attend Boston Public Schools.

 

 

Boston Public School officials said that any student not in school today will be marked as "constructively present" - meaning the absence will be excused.

School officials did not close school today due to the inclement weather, and will dismiss on their normal schedules and school buses will complete all scheduled routes.

But all extracurricular activites including athletic events have been cancelled today.

Boston Public Schools posted a message on its Facebook page about students being marked "constructively present" and that an automated phone call was going out to all families about the decision.

“Our school staff, especially our Facilities teams, have done an incredible job today keeping sidewalks and driveways clear of snow even as the snow continues to pile up,” said Superintendent Carol Johnson via press release. “We know many families made their own decision as to whether to keep their children home and we want to honor those choices, which is why we will not mark these students as absent. In addition, we continue to monitor the forecast which indicates the afternoon commute may be more difficult than originally predicted. This is why we are going to cancel afternoon and evening activities. We appreciate everyone’s patience and understanding during this unusual storm.”
 
Families can call the BPS Transportation Hotline this afternoon to check on the status of bus routes. Operators can look up the real-time positions of school buses to give families a sense of when they will arrive. That number is (617) 635-9520.

Related Topics: Snow and boston public schools

Karen Kast

3:08 pm on Friday, March 8, 2013

They should have made the "constructively present" decision BEFORE school and let us know via news. I did not get a robo-call about it until 1:15pm - NOT HELPFUL! I spent 4.5 hours transporting my two daughters to the Irving Middle School (right around the corner from me) and Urban Science Academy at the West Roxbury High School Complex! I live on Brown Ave - usually at most would have been an hour to and from both schools.

My @IrvingMSBPS daughter would not agree to stay home as it would have ruined her perfect attendance & my @UrbanSci daughter was recently ill so could not miss another day, so we had no choice as we were not told they wouldn't be penalized. I believe the staff who could not make it in should not be penalized either by the way!

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len McMahon

2:47 pm on Saturday, March 9, 2013

School should have been canceled ,then, students could have shoveled the elderly people sidewalks.

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