AUBURN — The School Department is turning a teacher workshop day into a regular school day this month to make up for one of five snow days this winter.

Superintendent Katy Grondin announced the decision Monday morning on Twitter.

“Due to the number of snow days so far this winter, we have decided to change Jan. 22 from a workshop day to a student day,” she wrote. A “robocall will be sent out at the end of the day to notify all families. Thank you for your flexibility and understanding!” 

The School Department has used five of the eight snow days built into the school calendar for 2018-19.

“We are trying to be proactive anticipating that we may have more than eight snow days,” she said in an email Monday. 

Grondin said that last year the district had three snow days by mid-January, but ended up with nine. At that point, the department turned a March workshop day into a student day.

She said staff will have to make up the workshop day. 

“It’s not ideal, as we do value our workshop days for professional development, however, we agreed that having a student day now rather than at the end of the school year is more productive,” she said.