LAS CRUCES -Snow days. Two words that go hand-in-hand with sleeping in and snowball fights.

Ray Jaramillo's two children, who attend Jornada Elementary School, spent the first of three canceled school days building a snowman. But unlike the ice that slicked roadways and froze pipes for three days last week, their jubilation soon melted.

"My kids were excited about having snow days, and then when we started talking about power outages and pipes breaking we weren't as excited about the cold temperatures," said Jaramillo, who helped several friends move from apartments with broken water pipes last week.

"And then I talked with them about how they may have to make up the three days they had off and it really wasn't as cool or fun as it started out to be that Wednesday," he said.

State law requires that public school students attend 177 school days. The length of the school day varies by grade level, with elementary students needing 990 hours of instruction time annually and middle and high school students needing 1,080 hours annually.

Las Cruces Public Schools Superintendent Stan Rounds canceled three days of classes last week for the city's 36 schools. The district will not need to make up any snow days, Rounds said, as there are enough instructional hours to meet that requirement. He also said the lost days would not impact teachers' pay.

At Mesilla Valley Christian School, Secondary Principal Tom Peterson said they are unsure if students will need to make up

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instruction time or if employee compensation will be affected, as a key member of the administrative team is undergoing surgery and won't be back until next week.

"We had one (snow) day built into our schedule," he said. "And we haven't had an administrative team meeting to decide what to do with the other two, so I can't give an answer right now."

David Nunez, assistant principal at Las Cruces Catholic Schools, said the school is still working to determine if students need to make up for recent cancellations and if employee compensation will be affected. Nunez said they will likely know early next week and will then inform parents and students.

In the Hatch Independent School District, Superintendent Anna Lisa Banegas-Pe-a said they are meeting with employees and district representatives today to craft a presentation to give to the Board of Education on Monday.

She said she expects the district to be "well within the limits" set by the state and that students likely will not need to make up missed class time. She also expects employee compensation to remain unchanged.

Students in the Gadsden Independent School District had four canceled school days last week. Deputy Superintendent Efren Yturralde said the district is still working on coming to a final decision regarding instruction, but that employee compensation will remain unchanged.

"The decision will not be made until Thursday afternoon and the decision will be based on what is in the best interest of students in receiving classroom instruction," he said.

New Mexico State University canceled class for three days last week and university president Barabra Couture said faculty will determine how to make up the missed class work to ensure that students receive a full semester's instruction.

Couture said the university is still "finalizing details about our employee compensation" and will "share the information with our campus community later this week."

Do-a Ana Community College President Margie Huerta said the branch campus will follow NMSU's lead and DACC faculty are being asked to make up for missed instruction time.

Huerta said it was unlikely that employees' compensation will be affected.

Christine Rogel can be reached at (575) 541-5424.