CHENANGO COUNTY – Otselic Valley students may feel a little left out today. Their school is the only one of Chenango County’s nine public school districts which decided to stay open despite the winter storm sweeping the region.

But while OV students may be jealous now, it will be the other way around in June, when everyone else has to make up the Regents examinations they couldn’t take today.

“According to regulations, if school is closed, students are not allowed to come in and take the exam,” explained Randy Squier, superintendent at the Oxford Central School District.

And to make maters worse, the state mandated tests have a rigid administration schedule.

“The state does not have a make up test available,” said Norwich Superintendent Gerard O’Sullivan. According to the administrator, this is to ensure test security.

What will this mean for students who will miss their Foreign Languages or Earth Science Regents today?

“If it is a normal one day exam, they will have to take the exam during the next Regents exam week (in June),” explained Unadilla Valley Superintendent Bob Mackey. “The state has no contingencies in place other than for seniors who may be eligible to make up an exam during the component re-testing period later in the spring.”

The news is even worse for students who took the first half of the Comprehensive English exam yesterday.

“If it is a two day exam and they have completed day one, they will need to start over during the next Regents examination week,” Mackey explained, which means their efforts yesterday were for naught.

Despite the inconvenience of a Regents week snow day, these local administrators said the exam wasn’t even a factor in the decision making process of whether or not to cancel school.

“Our criteria never changes; our number one priority is the safety of the students,” said O’Sullivan.

Mackey echoed his colleague’s response.