Members of the Jamestown Public Schools Board are pictured Tuesday. Board members approved a resolution that will give students the day off April 8 when a total solar eclipse will stretch across a large swath of the U.S. P-J photo by Eric Tichy

Jamestown Public Schools is ensuring that hundreds of students will be able to safely witness this April’s total solar eclipse.

School board members on Tuesday approved a resolution changing April 8 from a school day to a superintendent’s conference day. The calendar revision will not only afford students the chance to observe the highly-anticipated eclipse but will limit possible dangers associated with what’s expected to be an influx of people and vehicles to the region.

“The county has been very concerned about traffic on the roads on that day,” Dr. Kevin Whitaker, Jamestown Public Schools superintendent said. “In discussion with other superintendents, many of them have chosen to transition either to superintendent/conference days or it was already an existing vacation day at the end of that spring break.”

He added, “In order to help out with that, and to make sure our kids are off of the sidewalks and streets that afternoon when the eclipse happens, we transitioned to an adults-only day so the kids won’t be in that situation.”

On Monday, April 8, the moon will cast its shadow across a stretch of the U.S., Mexico and Canada, plunging millions of people into midday darkness.

Locally, the eclipse will begin around 3:15 p.m., a time when many students in Jamestown would be leaving school.

The calendar change will extend spring recess for students across Jamestown Public Schools by one extra day; spring recess kicks off Friday, March 29, and with the revision, means students will return Tuesday, April 9.

Whitaker said students will be given special glasses to watch the eclipse. Education related to the event is being planned as well.

Noel Guttman, county Emergency Services director, believes schools should treat April 8 like a snow day, knowing well in advance that there could be problems.

“One thing we know with the eclipse is traffic is going to be probably on a scale that we haven’t seen before for a single day event,” he said this past fall.

Because of the expected vehicle traffic, Guttman wants to do what he can to eliminate vehicles, including school buses and employees, from being on the road.

According to the Associated Press, the last coast-to-coast total solar eclipse in the U.S. occurred on Aug. 21, 2017. During this April’s eclipse, totality will stretch to around four and a half minutes — almost twice as long as in 2017.

In all, the April 8 eclipse will hit parts of 13 U.S. states: Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.

Estimates for attendance in Chautauqua County have been all over the map. Reports are that between 50,000 to 1 million people will be either in or drive through the county that weekend through Monday.

Back in September, the county Visitors Bureau reported that some hotels had already sold out for those three days.