Blue Earth Area students will have to make up a day missed because of the recent weather.

The district has three extra ‘snow’ days built into the yearly calendar, however, that has already been used up. School has been called off four days so far.

“We didn’t have a full day of school last week. We lost two days and had two late starts,” Superintendent Dale Brandsoy told the board Monday night.

Adding a day won’t be easy. Not many dates remain open on the calendar, says Brandsoy.

There are a total of three Mondays in February, March and April in which classes are not scheduled to be held. One of those is Feb. 16, President’s Day.

“We could hold class then. We might have to,” says Brandsoy.

The superintendent will be meeting with the district’s three principals to see where an extra day can be added.

School hasn’t been canceled just because of too much snow. Temperatures dipping well below zero and wind-chills of 30 and 40 below zero have forced officials to close schools.

“I would like to think we are done with this, but this is only January,” says boardmember Vickie Hanson.

The last day of school is June 5, but Brandsoy hopes students going beyond that date will not be necessary.

Educators may have to scramble to find ways to make up the lost time to meet state attendance guidelines. Or, a loss of state funding could result.

Brandsoy doesn’t believe the district will be in any danger of losing state aid, which is based on average daily membership.

“Making up the days doesn’t have anything to do with the loss of state aid as much as making sure the kids get a good education,” Brandsoy says.

United South Central is keeping its options open.

Interim Superintendent John Widvey has been on the job for about one week and says making up days hasn’t been discussed yet.

“The winter season is still very early yet. I have been in the business long enough to know things change and we’ll have to look at what actions we might need to take,” says Widvey.