CENTRAL SQUARE, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) — It’s been a mild winter for some Central New York school districts, for others not so much.

“We have used all five of our our alotted snow days for this school year,” said Tom Colabufo, the superintent of the the Central Square School District.

Colabufo said they have to meet the state education department’s requirement of 180 days of instruction. They also have a requirement by the hour.

“There’s a 900 instructional miminal, instructional hour requirement for the elementary and 990 minimal hours for the middle school and high school,” Colabufo explained.

Winter is far from over, so Colabufo let parents know if the district needed to use an emegency day for weather or if school had to close for another reason, it would then be a remote learning day.

“We have to follow a lot of guidelines from the state to be able to do this. Every student had to have access to a Chromebook, which we’ve given them or any device that they may already have at home so that they can access at least a bare minimum of a half day of instructional time to qualify as the 180 day.”

Tom Colabufo, Central Square School District Superintendent

They would have lost a day during spring break otherwise. What makes this even more challenging for Central Square is three counties are in this district: Oneida, Onondaga and Oswego.

“You could live in Brewerton most of the time and wonder why I’m canceling because it’s blue skies, and sunny and you literally drive into a wall of snow when you get into Central Square,” said Colabufo

Colabufo says when snow is in the forecast he’s up at three in the morning. He has a team of people working to determine the best option to keep students safe. That’s the priority.

Colabufo said, if there can’t be in-person learning Tuesday, March 14, or any other day, he will let NewsChannel 9 know of the remote day, as well as send a text alert and it will be posted on the district’s website.