As of yesterday, Head of School Charles Hagy announced that students are required to attend two extra weeks of school this year that will go into what would be summer vacation. For students to graduate to the next grade, they are required to attend a certain number of days at school according to Florida’s state standards. Unfortunately, the middle school students have collectively had too many absences and tardies and need to make up those days.  “Summer [will be] delayed two weeks, [because] students need additional time [to learn the required amount of] math, English, and science,” explained Hagy. “We recently realized, unfortunately, that students have had too many absences this year and we need to make up those days.” Parents will be notified via a letter which the administration mailed out yesterday and faculty was apprised of the change during a staff meeting this week. Because of this, finals will be pushed to the week of June 8 and school will officially end on Friday, June 12, 2015. These last two weeks of school are mandatory for all students. “We are sorry for the inconvenience, however, The Benjamin School curriculum needs to be fully incorporated and students need these two extra weeks of school,” concluded Hagy.

The Neersyde will continue to follow this story as it develops – please check back for updates this week!