Just sent out the dreaded school notes - Yikes!

[mrsv98]

Quote:
When my DD's school district does away with Institute days, school improvement days, non-contact days, early release days, late-opening days (planned not for weather) and freakin' Casmir Polaski day, then I will rethink our family vacation policy.



You proved my point, all these days are avilable, in addition to Christmas, Spring, and Summer breaks. Plenty of time to minimize or eliminate missed days.

No, my point is, to my DH and I, the schools take a tremendous amount of frivolous time off and then whine when we take kids out of school. It is a mixed message. When I was teaching, it was a private school and and from the return from Winter Break to Spring break, we had MLK day off (federal holiday) and a long weekend in Feb. That was it and we got more done in that time than any other point in the year. When schools send the message that they value having your child in school, parents respond, when schools take time out of instruction for "School Improvment Day", it says something different.

 

[jodifla]

No, my point is, to my DH and I, the schools take a tremendous amount of frivolous time off and then whine when we take kids out of school. It is a mixed message. When I was teaching, it was a private school and and from the return from Winter Break to Spring break, we had MLK day off (federal holiday) and a long weekend in Feb. That was it and we got more done in that time than any other point in the year. When schools send the message that they value having your child in school, parents respond, when schools take time out of instruction for "School Improvment Day", it says something different.

Exactly! And all those scattered days do nothing to help cobble together time to take a vacation.

 

[kilee]

In our school district family vacations w/ 2 weeks advance notice are an excused miss. I won't debate right or wrong- to each their own. I guess it's just nice to know that my school district is okay w/ it.

 

[kydisneyfans]

In my town last year school was cancelled for a day so that teachers could protest low pay at the state capital. What kind of message does that send to the kids? I get a day off since I am not paid enough? Geesh. I know what would happen if I did that at my job.

Then a month later we received the attendance notice because we took him out of school for 1 day as he had a court hearing in our former hometown. We did not think it was appropriate to have a kindergarten age child get off the bus alone and stay home alone for the day while we were 300 miles away.

The next week he ran a fever of 104 and puked everywhere-since the attencance policy was sent-he was sent to school. The school obviously thought they could judge where our child should be rather than the parents.

 

[CheshireVal]

I can see both sides of this issue. I'm a teacher (8th grade), and I can tell you that it's a real hassle for me when kids miss class, because you have to spend a lot of time with them to catch them up, and they're never at the same place academically as everyone else in their class.

On the other hand, if they're good students, they generally have an easy time making up the work, and I do realize that family time is important.

 

[monsterkitty]

No, my point is, to my DH and I, the schools take a tremendous amount of frivolous time off and then whine when we take kids out of school. It is a mixed message. When I was teaching, it was a private school and and from the return from Winter Break to Spring break, we had MLK day off (federal holiday) and a long weekend in Feb. That was it and we got more done in that time than any other point in the year. When schools send the message that they value having your child in school, parents respond, when schools take time out of instruction for "School Improvment Day", it says something different.

SOunds like you need to move to our district - we have 3 days at Thanksgiving, Winter Break, Spring Break, MLK, and Presidents Day. We do not have inservice days during the year, instead we do it before school starts in the August and the Wednesday before Thanksgiving (the kids are off but we aren't.) We also do not do late starts or early release. When the school board tried to force us to do inservice days during the year we refused.

To the OP, have a great time and don't forget to send the teachers a postcard or a fun e-mail picture from Epcot. If your kids were in my class I would give them money for a , Kaki Gori, Citrus Swirl, or something from the Main Street Bakery. Of course they would have to think of me when eating the treat.

 

[chell]

You sure have picked a wonderful time to go. It is great to see that families do still care about family time.

Enjoy all the special decorations! And have tons of fun!