Stonington — Following Tropical Storm Irene in August 2011, school officials here waited until this spring to determine how to make up the missed days of schools.

Proposals to cancel April vacation or change the date of graduation upset both students and parents. In addition, it was discovered that former Superintendent of Schools Leanne Masterjoseph had created a calendar that violated state law because it did not have enough school days.

New Superintendent Van Riley is not making those same mistakes with Hurricane Sandy.

Riley is proposing that the school board immediately modify the 2012-13 calendar to account for the five days that school was canceled after the hurricane. The board will review and possibly vote on Riley's plan when it meets at 7 p.m. today in the high school commons.

"There's no reason we can't make a decision right now to preserve spring break and not go into the end of June," he said.

Students already made up one of the days by going to school Tuesday, which had originally been slated to be closed for staff professional development.

A second day would be made up on Feb. 19, which had originally been slated to be the last day of a four-day Presidents Day weekend.

A third day would be made up on March 28, which had been scheduled as a staff professional development day.

This means that with two days left to make up, the last day of school and graduation would now move from June 12 to June 14. The move, though, prevents school from spilling over to the following week. Staff would make up two professional development days on June 17 and 18.

Riley said announcing the change now will help families as they make plans for April vacation.

If the school system has to cancel class because of snow, Riley and the board will have to further alter the calendar.

j.wojtas@theday.com