Akron Public Schools is extending Spring Break by a day to avoid sending students to school on the day of a widely anticipated total solar eclipse that will briefly plunge the city into darkness.
The April 8 solar eclipse is a national event, with people expected to flock to the city and other areas that are in what’s known as the path of totality as the eclipse crosses from southwest to northeast. Akron was last in the path of a total solar eclipse in 1806.
A planned Instructional Improvement Day on March 28 will now be a normal school day and students will be off April 8 instead. Staff will still be expected to report to work.
In an email, district spokesperson Mark Williamson said the calendar change was made because the eclipse will go from 1:59 to 4:29 p.m. — with its peak, and darkness, around 3:15 p.m. — meaning “total blacking out of all sunlight is to occur at school dismissal times.”
He said there will be increased travel in the area from visitors coming to see the event. A number of local school districts are making similar decisions to change their calendars “to meet various needs of this wonderful, unusual spectacle,” he said.
Board members approved the change unanimously.
“It’s a huge, huge, huge attraction coming to this area,” Superintendent Michael Robinson said.
He said the change would be communicated to families who have children in the school district.
