ALPENA — Families in Alpena Public Schools can now start preparing for the summer, because the last day of school is official.

The APS Board of Education on Thursday set June 14 as the last day of school, pending Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s signature of a bill that would forgive four snow days that were called during a state-declared emergencyearly this year.

House Bill 4206 would forgive four snow days called by schools during a state emergency from Jan. 28 to Feb. 2. The bill has gone through the state House and state Senate and is sitting on Whitmer’s desk waiting for her signature.

Superintendent John VanWagoner said Thursday his contacts in Lansing said Whitmer will sign the bill today. He said he is comfortable to have June 14 as the last day of school.

“As much as we don’t want to lose instructional elements, there is a reality of what our community values and expectations,” VanWagoner said.

June 14 will be a half-day, with teacher records in the afternoon, and June 13 will be a full day of school.

“The half-day would be a full day for staff,” Justin Gluesing, associate superintendent for human resources and labor relations, said. “That afternoon on that Friday would be for records, checkout, those sorts of things. We talked about for staff purposes also extending the deadline for report cards and grades for Monday if there are some that wish to come back in before they get checked out.”

VanWagoner said the district has the intention to pay hourly employees for the four days lost during the state emergency. The bill now on Whitmer’s desk had been hung up over a debate in the Legislature over whether schools should be required to pay those workers. That language is not included in the final bill.

The last day of school was originally supposed to be June 7, but the large number of snow days has extended the school year for many districts in the state.

Alpena called 19 snow days this school year. Six days are automatically forgiven from an existing state law and three additional days have also been forgiven from a standard Michigan Department of Education waiver.

Thursday’s meeting was held just two days after voters widely rejected APS’s $63 million bond proposal. The board did not discuss the election results at Thursday’s meeting, though VanWagoner did say during the meeting the district would take any donations that can help the district in any way.

Julie Goldberg can be reached at 989-358-5688 or jgoldberg@thealpenanews.com. Follow her on Twitter @jkgoldberg12.

The Alpena Public Schools Board of Education on Thursday also:

∫ Heard from Superintendent John VanWagoner about the district receiving donations to redo the football/soccer field at Wildcat Stadium. The district will put out a request for proposals and solicit bids. The hope is to complete that project this summer, pending contractors and having all the donations in hand.