The decision to cancel school Monday morning following a weekend’s worth of nonstop snowfall was a fairly obvious move for the administration at Dowagiac Union School to make on Sunday evening.

So obvious, in fact, that they made the call to staff and parents before kickoff of the Super Bowl, said Superintendent Paul Hartsig.

With five other cancellations occurring this school year, including one last week for temperature, the decision means that the district has used up all of its allotted snow days for year, meaning that students could be spending a little bit more time in the classroom this summer.

According to state law, public schools must be open for teaching for 180 days every school year, though administrators allowed to cancel classes six times every year for weather-related reasons.

Any further snow days must be made up, or else the district will not receive state funding for the missed dates.

With several weeks left in the winter season, Hartsig said he and the other administrators plan to meet this week to discuss potential plans in case additional cancellations are needed before spring.

“We’re looking to see if there are any half-days or in-service days on the calendar we can hold a full day of classes on to make up any lost time,” Hartsig said. “We don’t want to alter parents or kids summer schedules too much.”

One of the concerns about potentially extending the length of the current school year past its scheduled end date of June 5 is that a sizable portion of students will be on vacation, Hartsig said. In order for a school day to be recognized by the state, at least 75 percent of the student population must be present.

Last year, the district called off classes a total of 10 times during the winter, requiring students to make up four days of classes. As a result, the district modified the schedule for its last several weeks, running classes through June 11.

Despite the cancelations, this winter has not been as difficult for the district’s maintenance team to handle as last year, with crews able to keep up with the snow removal on school grounds, Hartsig said.

“Every year we budget for the worst-case scenario, and we have not dealt with that yet this year, so we’re pretty happy,” he said.

In spite of running out of snow days, Hartisg said that will not factor into any future decisions to call of classes throughout the rest of the season.

“We always side on behalf of safety,” he said. “Whether we have six days, or 10, or 15 already cancelled, we treat each day the same way. We do what’s best for our students, staff and parents.”