Many local students, who have had fewer snow days this year because of the mild winter, will be getting the time off anyway this spring.

Because contracts with teachers require schools to limit the number of class days, local superintendents said they are required to turn unused snow days into days off for teachers and students, either by making spring vacations longer or by shortening the school year in June.

"According to our contract, our school district can only have 180 days," said Edmund Schultis, superintendent of Schenevus Central School. "That's been in the contract for years and years, since before I got here."

Schenevus allocated six "emergency days" for use in case of snow, ice or other inclement weather, Schultis said, but has only used one.

The five unused days off will be tacked on to an existing Easter vacation, Memorial Day weekend, two weekends and the last day of classes for the year, Schultis said.

"We want to keep four-day weeks, and not have broken-up weeks," he said. "We want to make it easiest for parents, who need to find baby-sitters."

Other school districts reported similar situations.

At Cherry Valley-Springfield, for example, officials have only used three of five allowed-for snow days, said Superintendent Thomas Marzeski.

The situation is unusual, he said.

"Last year we actually had to make up days," by adding them to the school year, Marzeski said. "We had five snow days, we used seven."

Although teacher contracts don't specifically limit the year to 180 days, it has been established practice to do so, Marzeski said.

In the Oneonta City School District, officials scheduled three snow days, but, so far, only one has been used, Superintendent James Piscitelli said.

The school board will decide when to give students the extra days off, he said.

"According to contract, we have to pare the (number of school days) back to 183," Piscitelli said. "That's the way it was negotiated years ago, and that's the way it is."

Sidney Central School has a different policy. No matter how many snow days are not used, district officials can only give one back to students and staff, Superintendent Dominic Nuciforo said.

The district designated five snow days this year, but has only used three so far, Nuciforo said.

"Our mind set is that we want to have the kids in school as much as possible, especially with all of the higher-stakes testing," he said.