"School days, school days, dear old golden rule days," goes an old ditty. The problem is, someone has tinkered with the golden rule days, and a lot of people now want that someone to stand in the corner.

School superintendents around the state have had to do some quick footwork to deal with a recent change in state law that creates a new school holiday -- Sept. 12, the day of the primary elections.

School officials consulted in the past several days complained overwhelmingly that adding primary day to the holiday list came as an eye opener.

"Someone should have checked with school officials before closing school on a day that is two weeks into the school year," Newport Schools Supt. John H. Ambrogi said. "Obviously, there's a great amount of accountability that legislators place on schools for having students achieve up to standard on state tests -- and then there is a prime day for learning that occurs on Tuesday, Sept. 12, which we no longer have available to us as a result of this new legislation."

For some districts, there is no effect -- their schools customarily have closed when school buildings double as polling stations. But others have had to amend their calendars, tack on a day of school at the end of the year, and inform working parents that they might have to hire baby sitters for primary day.

Jeff Neal, Governor Carcieri's press secretary, said that the governor let the bill become law in late June without his signature because the legislation's main purpose was to allow local boards of canvassers to consolidate polling places.

"Unfortunately," he added, "good bills sometimes include less-advisable provisions. In this case, it isn't clear to the governor what advantage closing schools on primary day provides either to voters or schoolchildren."

It wasn't clear either to the several school officials who were interviewed. All said no one had consulted them about the bill, and they could only guess at the rationale behind it.

One of those professing at least as much surprise was the legislator who sponsored the bill.

Sen. James C. Sheehan D-North Kingstown, said Thursday he had been blindsided by the state Board of Elections.

"I am chagrined at the closing of the public schools," Sheehan said. "I certainly have something to discuss with the Board of Elections." He said the school holiday provision had been "buried" at the bottom of what he had assumed was an innocuous bill whose stated purpose was to save money by streamlining polling places.

Sheehan said he submitted the bill "by request." (Any member of the public can seek to submit a bill through a legislator.) Sheehan said he never questioned the measure -- nor did he read it through, he said -- because it came from a state agency.

"I was not the one who crafted it," he said. "I just took it at face value, that it was something they wanted. Usually they have good legislation that goes through the process."

He said he intended to have words with the board.

Robert Kando, executive director of the Board of Elections, defended the legislation Thursday.

He said that the board added the school closing provision out of concern for the safety of schoolchildren, which he said has been a growing issue.

"In addition to security and safety, we get the added benefit of a cleaner election, because now we won't have schoolchildren interfering sometimes in the election process." But the security issue stood foremost, Kando contended.

As for the measure arriving as a surprise to school administrators, Kando said he was surprised, in turn, that they were surprised.

"It was a public bill," he said. "When we submit bills dealing with boards of canvassers, for example, we do not run them by every board of canvassers. This is an excellent bill. The superintendents are not examining this closely enough from the standpoint of the safety of their own students. I think the superintendents are being shortsighted."

The effects of the bill differ.

In some cases, communities will incur expenses because primary election day becomes, in effect, a paid holiday for nonteaching staff. By contrast, it has been traditional for years to give teachers and students a holiday on Election Day in November, and school districts plan their calendars accordingly.

Frances A. Gallo, deputy superintendent in Providence, was the only one of those interviewed to divine that the rationale was security, although she said that her reasoning had been based on hearsay rather than any official pronouncement.

"Many principals had complained that they couldn't keep their buildings secure," Gallo said this week. "We lock our doors. We are very cognizant of safety, yet here we are on primary election day and we have to be open because voting machines are located in gymnasiums and elsewhere, and the doors are wide open."

On the other hand, Richard Scherza, superintendent of schools in Cranston, said he knew of "no compelling reason" to declare a school holiday on primary day.

(Scherza and the other school officials spoke prior to Kando's statement this week declaring that the issue had been school security.)

"First of all," Scherza said, "kids don't vote -- and a lot of our schools don't get used for polling places. This just has the effect of making kids go to school one day longer into the summer."

In Smithfield, Schools Supt. Robert M. O'Brien estimated it will cost his small district more than $10,000 to comply with the school shutdown.

Usually, O'Brien said, the schools remain in session because fewer voters turn out for primary elections than for the general elections that take place two months later. There is no disruption of teaching because the voters who do show up generally tend to arrive after working hours, when school is over for the day anyway.

"I don't understand the reason why they all of a sudden want to close for the primary," he said.

Supt. Stephen Welford of Burrillville said he could "not even hazard a guess at the cost," but said it likely would run into "the thousands."

Ambrogi, Newport's superintendent, said his school district will wind up paying for bus drivers and monitors for special-education students, who are taken to private facilities, some of them out of town. Those facilities will remain open on primary day. O'Brien and Welford said the same.

Ambrogi said he could not estimate the added cost. "It's not that astronomical, but it is significant," he said.

Senator Sheehan said the sudden flurry of criticism "puts me in a bind as much as anybody else."

"Frankly," he said, "if I had known closing the schools was part of it, that might have been something I would have thought twice about."

He said he regretted that some school officials were upset, and said he would confer with them if they wished.

"I would be more than happy to see if we can correct this going forward," he said. "That is something I will be speaking to the Board of Elections about."

tmorgan@projo.com / (401) 277-7488