Ten school days missed due to a Palmerton Area School District teachers' strike will be made up at the end of the year after the unanimous approval of an updated school calendar Tuesday night.

The plan was not a popular one with many parents and residents, who urged the district to use existing holidays on the schedule as makeup days.Resident Anne Cronk said the move is just angering parents by dragging things out and sees it as a ploy by the district's labor attorney, John Audi, to block a second teachers strike.Audi penned an article in 2015, which is posted on his law firm's website, stating that "blocking a second strike is now as easy as delaying the last day of school by the number of days the first strike lasted and not using the scheduled holidays as makeup days for the lost instruction resulting from the strike. This will most likely use up any available days for a possible second strike since 180 days of instruction will not be able to be completed by the statutory deadline of June 30th.""His firm wanted to find a school district to test this theory," Cronk said. "Don't let Palmerton be that test case."The revised calendar puts Palmerton's last day, and graduation day, on June 19. The date could be pushed back further if there is more than one weather cancellation between now and then.Superintendent Scot Engler said he consulted with the Pennsylvania Department of Education when choosing when to make up the lost time."There is criteria established when there is a work stoppage," he said. "When that happens, we can no longer use Act 80 days. We also use Penn's Peak for graduation, so we are limited in the days we can get that facility. We're also not out of winter yet, so we had to keep options open for a snow day."According to Audi's article, districts can implement a calendar change and leave no days left for a second strike based on a ruling in a case involving Old Forge School District."It is time to rethink second strikes and the destructive impact they have on education," Audi wrote. "There is no reason to further punish students and their families by cramming all educational days in before June 15th, thus eliminating any holidays and breaks for the students."The greatest impact, according to Palmerton senior Alyssa Olewine, is to the students."You're really hurting the senior class by what you're doing," she told the board. "Using days during the year would be beneficial."