Martha’s Vineyard public schools will forgo April vacation, and the Island school year will end on Monday, June 22, the all-Island school committee decided Friday.

Vineyard schools superintendent Matthew D’Andrea said a survey sent to staff and parents this week saw overwhelming support for canceling April vacation, with 80 per cent approval.

“We’ve got remote learning rolling, kids and parents are getting into a pattern and want to keep that going. I think it’s the right thing to do,” Mr. D’Andrea said.

Patriot’s Day (April 20) will still be observed as a holiday, but the other four school days will be deducted from the school year which was previously slated to end on June 26.

The committee unanimously approved. Mr. D’Andrea said he is also considering using some of the district’s remaining three snow days to “sprinkle in some three-day weekends” in order to give kids and parents a break.

In other business at the meeting Friday, Mr. D’Andrea said the school lunch distribution program will be making some adjustments starting next week. To reduce the risk of exposure for the people working the delivery stations, the Regional High School, Edgartown, Oak Bluffs and Tisbury schools will begin handing out bags of groceries and prepared lunches on Mondays and Thursdays from noon to 1 p.m. rather than every day.

Each bag of groceries will contain enough food to compensate for the reduced number of dates. The high school will also serve three breakfasts and three lunches on Mondays and two breakfasts and two lunches on Thursdays. Edgartown School and Oak Bluffs School will offer a combination of general groceries and prepared meals in grab and go style. Tisbury School will offer groceries only.

The West Tisbury School will continue providing daily lunches, Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. because it is better suited to do so based on the small size of its cafeteria kitchen and minimal staff required to prepare food, Mr. D’Andrea said.

“Our goal is to make sure that we feed as many people as we can and keep our staff as safe as possible. If issues come up with the changes we’ve made, we’ll make adjustments accordingly,” Mr. D’Andrea said.

Families are asked to pre-order in an effort to minimize contact, but groceries and meals will still be available if pre-orders are not received. Families are not limited to the schools their children attend and can go to any school for food pickup.

Begun last month as schools shut down due to the coronovirus outbreak, the free lunch program has been serving hundreds of families on the Island every day.