Feb

Wake County Schools Screws Spring Breakers

Today’s day off of school due to slight amounts of lingering snow will result in extremely disrupted vacation plans for many Wake County families. The day off will be made up on March 29, Day 3 of a 10-day Spring Break.

What is exceedingly ludicrous about the decision is the fact that the school system is still holding a Teacher Work Day on Monday, April 5. That day is “Easter Monday”, a North Carolina vestigial quirk held over from the days when NCSU/Wake Forest baseball actually meant something.

While the school board frets over ways to discredit a survey that plainly states the public’s discontent with [mandatory] year-round schools, they are forgetting to approach the school calendar logically. If they must ignore Good Friday and hold Easter Monday as a sacred holiday when planning the calendar, at least make Easter Monday a part of Spring Break week.

Has anyone looked at what the year-rounders in Tracks 1, 2, and 4 get? From April 26 thru May 14 those students will be in school for 17 of 19 days. Why are the two Saturday makeup days on consecutive weekends? Fatigue will be a big factor approaching the end of that stretch.

To expect traditional calendar students to return for Day 3 during a 10-day vacation is asking for mass absences and, therefore, drastically reduced productivity. The school board should make up today’s loss on either Saturday, March 27 or on Easter Monday, and allow families to proceed with their vacation plans. The teachers should do what all small business owners must do, find a way to get work done during a holiday or weekend.

RonT

Dana, I know your heart is in the right place. But the first thing I thought of when I read your post was that given where our (U.S.A.) students are with respect to others in the developed world, I think ruined vacations are hardly a concerned.

For that matter, I think summer breaks are a relic that result in poorer test scores, and add to our deterioration with respect to other developed countries.

I realize that your point is that a few days could have been moved around and the vacations saved. But, I decided to get on my soapbox.
B

Your comments, especially “The teachers should do what all small business owners must do, find a way to get work done during a holiday or weekend”, struck a nerve.

What you have just described is what I as a teacher do *every* day. There is never enough time to get done what I need to get done at school, and it *always* spills over in to the evenings, holidays, and weekends. While we do have “planning period”, it is poorly protected, and falls far short of the necessary time to prepare excellent instruction, communicate with parents, and provide helpful feedback to students, let alone the dozens of time-wasting mandates that land on my desk on a daily basis.

I agree with you that the scheduling choices that have been made are not ideal, but we didn’t get any input in them whatsoever. Furthermore, on Monday roads in my neighborhood were impassable and I couldn’t go in, so I worked from home. However, even though I did more than a full day’s work, I still will have to take leave for the day because I was unable to make it safely into the building… and then still make the day up later.

The teachers have no say in this decision, and increasingly in any other decision that affects us, our classes, and most importantly, our students. Want to see what gets done during a holiday or weekend? I invite you to shadow me in my job and see what it’s really like. I love teaching students, but it is situations like what I have just described coupled with lack of support that are driving passionate, seasoned professionals out of our schools.
- http://www.danamccall.com Dana
  
  Thanks for the input, lovemysummer.
JeffS

Dana, you should have put your last sentence first so I would have known to ignore the rant.
rob

“a survey that plainly states the public’s discontent with year-round schools” can I get some data that says the public is dissatisfied with year round schools?

Maybe I didn’t read enough into this from wral http://www.wral.com/news/education/story/6949989/

Only 6% of parents with kids at year rounds schools or traditional calendar schools were dissatisfied or discontented.

I guess my definition of “plainly” is different than yours or I missed the sarcasm in you article by a mile, if so I apologize in advance.

-On topic they should have just sent the kids to school and left it up to the parents to choose whether it was safe enough.
http://www.danamccall.com Dana

To be fair, rob, I wasn’t clear in my statement. The public is clearly not accepting of _mandatory_ year round schools. I just added that word into the story. With only 45% in favor of year round schools, this is far from a mandate. The mayor’s wife’s words are quite concerning…

As far as parents choosing whether or not the school is safe for their child, I’m sure that the trial lawyers out there are not about to reverse their finger-pointing practices when it comes to liability. The reason WCPSS has gotten SO conservative about closing school is because of previous litigation.

I didn’t mean to insult the teachers, however the Spring Break week would work a lot better if the teachers took their planned Work Day on Saturday, March 27 and have everyone back in class on Easter Monday.

JeffS, the next time you have a 1 week vacation planned, imagine how you’d feel if the boss made you come in and work one solitary day during the next week.

Finally, RonT, the economy needs people traveling, especially in this second dip we’re entering.
RonT

Touche’
Kevin

Why hasn’t anyone looked at what would be the most logical solution to the problem at hand? Extend the early-release Wednesdays to a full day. There must be enough hours that could be gained from that to make-up the missing days.

Then again, I suppose this would really upset certain after-school organizations that have been offering Wednesday programming, but really, the school-day should come before extra-curricular activities that aren’t affiliated with the School System.
Rob

It reads easier and is much more palatable. In fact I wouldn’t have responded if I had read that, so in a way it was fortunate =). I think one will see that, as future kids are brought in and progress through the system, the % of favorable year round statistics will go up. Though I would accept any calendar year if it gets me in the school actually in my neighborhood instead of going further away.
Owen

I don’t see what the big deal is. I have a child in WPCSS and he’ll end up missing a day because we’re not canceling our vacation plans. It’s not the end of the world.
E

It’s not hours that need to be made up – it’s days. The state mandates that there be 180 DAYS of school so extending early release days wouldn’t legally make up the difference.
Kevin

Is it ok for me to just say how bizarre a concept it is that we have to have 180 DAYS of school, regardless of the length of the school day, when the same instructional time could be accomplished in 177 slightly longer days.

This sort of illogical thinking is bureaucratic idiocy at its worst!

Posted by Dana on February 3, 2010 | Tags: Other . | ( 12 ) Comments

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Wake County Schools Screws Spring Breakers

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