our crazy governor...

[hrh_disney_queen]

A week ago last Monday, I drove DS5 and DS7 to school. Pulled up....no one in sight...Huh??? I thought we had missed the second coming!! Called DH, who said, "oh yeah, i got an email about that. (he teaches at the college) It said the public schools were closed due to an energy crisis, but we were still open." Let's just ignore the fact that DH forgot to tell me....

What happened was, on Friday, after they let the kids out for their 1/2 day off, the governor decided to close the schools on Monday and Tuesday to save gas from all the busses. No time to send out notification to parents. So they put it in the paper on Sunday, and I guess on the news. So what if you don't subscribe to either...We were gone all weekend, so we didn't!! Not really a big deal to me, I am a SAHM. But what about all those parents scrambling at the last minute for daycare, or worse yet like me driving up and no school..Now what do I do? A lot of people had to call in absent to work-some w/o pay. The YMCA's had daycare available, but I can't even imagine what kind of zoo that turned out to be. I'd rather stay home... Why they couldn't wait until the following Thursday and Friday so they could let parents know is way beyond my reasoning..

But the really stupid thing is that the kids still have to make up those days. They are talking about shortening holidays or adding on two days after Memorial Day..So WHERE ARE WE SAVING ENERGY IF WE HAVE MAKE IT UP??????

I'm sorry, but this is the most perfect example of "knee jerking" I have ever heard of. And I don't even know if the gov is the same party as I am, it doesn't matter, I still think it was a really bad idea poorly executed..

I have been holding that in for almost 2 weeks..The infringement on vacation time finally did me in. Thanks for letting me vent!!

Edited to add: President Bush called our gov to pat him on the back for this fiasco.

 

[KrnB]

Wow, that really is lame - both for the fact that they didn't warn parents very well at all (a note sent home with students would have been nice, as would more than a weekend's notice to make arrangements) and the fact that they will have to make up the time anyway, not saving a dime. Crazy.

Lemme guess - is he running for reelection soon?

 

[manhattan]

Just had to say thanks for the laugh....that is truly funny, in a really sad way!

 

[mom2boys]

Yep that was on the news here in Maryland (might have been DC or Baltimore station - I watch both) I didn't realize the kids have to make those days up. That is about the stupidest thing I've heard lately.
Now here in our brillant county - my kids go to school 4 hours late Mon & Tues, are dismissed 3.5 hours early Wed and off Thrusday & Friday. Half the county is on vacation - many at WDW. Think we might do that next year.

 

[hrh_disney_queen]

Yep that was on the news here in Maryland (might have been DC or Baltimore station - I watch both) I didn't realize the kids have to make those days up. That is about the stupidest thing I've heard lately.
Now here in our brillant county - my kids go to school 4 hours late Mon & Tues, are dismissed 3.5 hours early Wed and off Thrusday & Friday. Half the county is on vacation - many at WDW. Think we might do that next year.

WHAT!!! How in the world do your kids get in all the required time for school??? That is just insane, how can they possible learn all they need to in those short days? Wow, things are crazy all over. Maybe your governor is related to mine..

I find it interesting that someone in Maryland knew that I didn't need to drive my kids to school on Monday and Tuesday probably before I found out!! They weren't sure about the make up at first, now they are looking at Thanksgiving and Christmas break. Which really isn't that bad, both holidays are pretty long. But the whole thing is just too stupid for words. But I managed to find a few...

 

[MoniqueU]

I agree it is stupid. I am also tired of hearing about high gas prices. Did people actually expect them to stay exactly the same for years on end? I know they went up but gee thats a fact of life that prices are going to rise on you.

 

[mum4jenn]

Maybe you need to at least start reading the paper on-line!!

I work for our school system and we did not even know until after we all got home. However it was all while Hurricane Rita was looking like it was going to be a Cat 5. If it HAD been a Cat 5 we would have missed much more that two days. Also The Gov. said that with the pipeline that serves GA we would have been out of deisel fuel later on in the week because of damage from the hurricane. Later this week more info came out about his advisors and such and he did not get HIS(Perdue) info until late that Friday so he made his "recommendation" as soon as he could which was better than waiting until Sunday night. It was not mandatory btw but most systems did comply. Some will make the time up and some will not. We lost three seperate days last year due to the winds from 3 different hurricanes ansd we made all those up too. Also we did not know until the night before that there would be no school so I think having a weekend was alot easier than finding out the night before or even the morning of!! If Rita had been a cat5 and had shut down all the pipelines etc and he had not cancelled school then everyone would be griping about that too!!
There are two sides to this. Yes most have to make the days up but there are supposed to be 180 days of school. When The Gov first made the announcement tons of people were griping saying he did not value education and the kids were missing 2 days of learning...ok.....now they are being made up to get those two days back and those same people are griping again!!!!
Our school board has said we will make our days up but they don't meet until this Tuesday to decide on the days. Also the county next to us has already informed people of the days that will be make up days. I know from looking at several different counties calendars when they came out last year there was a notation that certain days scheduled as "off" could possible be "make-up" days due to events like this.

You can never make all the people happy all the time. ANd NO I did NOT vote for this Governor!!!

 

[hrh_disney_queen]

Maybe you need to at least start reading the paper on-line!!


I work for our school system and we did not even know until after we all got home. However it was all while Hurricane Rita was looking like it was going to be a Cat 5. If it HAD been a Cat 5 we would have missed much more that two days. Also The Gov. said that with the pipeline that serves GA we would have been out of deisel fuel later on in the week because of damage from the hurricane. Later this week more info came out about his advisors and such and he did not get HIS(Perdue) info until late that Friday so he made his "recommendation" as soon as he could which was better than waiting until Sunday night. It was not mandatory btw but most systems did comply. Some will make the time up and some will not. We lost three seperate days last year due to the winds from 3 different hurricanes ansd we made all those up too. Also we did not know until the night before that there would be no school so I think having a weekend was alot easier than finding out the night before or even the morning of!! If Rita had been a cat5 and had shut down all the pipelines etc and he had not cancelled school then everyone would be griping about that too!!
There are two sides to this. Yes most have to make the days up but there are supposed to be 180 days of school. When The Gov first made the announcement tons of people were griping saying he did not value education and the kids were missing 2 days of learning...ok.....now they are being made up to get those two days back and those same people are griping again!!!!
Our school board has said we will make our days up but they don't meet until this Tuesday to decide on the days. Also the county next to us has already informed people of the days that will be make up days. I know from looking at several different counties calendars when they came out last year there was a notation that certain days scheduled as "off" could possible be "make-up" days due to events like this.

You can never make all the people happy all the time. ANd NO I did NOT vote for this Governor!!!

I don't need to read it on-line, I subscribe to it. And it was sitting on my dining room table when I got home. Not everyone subscribes to the newspaper, and not everyone watches the news. Those people should not be left out of the loop.

As I said in my OP, I was away all weekend. Picked the kids up from school drove to Orlando, came home late Sunday. A message on my phone from a "round robin" group or from the kids teacher would have been nice. Not a huge deal, the teacher makes 20 phone calls Friday night. It did not effect me, I wonder how many parents lost out on a paycheck for those days because they are out of the loop as far as watching the news or reading the paper. That should not be the deciding factor as to who finds out in time to get help and who shows up on Monday a.m. to find out there is no school, and consequently, no money for that day's missed work. But you know, as long as it saves the state some money temporarily, who cares about the single mom sitting at home when she should be at work. I also don't care about making up days..It just seems to make little or no sense, even with your explanation. Why later on in the weekend, when they knew it wasn't as necessary as they thought, couldn't they use the same noninclusive notification (newspaper/TV news) to let people know that they had decided to have school after all? I know, that sounds almost as stupid as closing the schools without bothering to actually verbally tell anyone on Friday.

 

[mum4jenn]

So they put it in the paper on Sunday, and I guess on the news. So what if you don't subscribe to either...We were gone all weekend, so we didn't!!

Sorry...I took that to mean YOU don't subscribe. That's the way it sounded to me.

I am just a news hound I guess. I love all the news shows and watch CNN quite a bit. Even when we are in Orlando we watch the morning news and read the paper everyday.

Our area here did an excellent job of getting the info out to us. I knew by a phone call by 3:15 that day and it had already been on our local station by way of breaking news. Then it was all over the papers,news,and computer (even the DIS) so there was no way I was going to miss it!! I think I even saw it on the CNN info at the bottom of the screen!!

I know lots of people here had problems but lots of churches opened areas and other daycares opened extra spots. I guess it is kind of like if your child is sick...you normally don't have any warning about that either so I think a whole weekend was pretty good warning!! Things like this is just part of why I chose to work for the school system...that way I would have almost all the same time off as my dd and would not have that worry on my mind.I do have a few days a year that I have to make other arrangements but at least with stuff like this I don't have to!!

My dh was in Orlando that weekend and we did not go because I did not want dd to miss school that Friday....if we had gone anyway we could have stayed another couple of days....shucks!! But I am glad she was in school anyway.

Before Sunday school last week there was a big debate about this very thing. Like I said you will never please everyone, everytime on anything.

 

[mum4jenn]

Why later on in the weekend, when they knew it wasn't as necessary as they thought, couldn't they use the same noninclusive notification (newspaper/TV news) to let people know that they had decided to have school after all? I know, that sounds almost as stupid as closing the schools without bothering to actually verbally tell anyone on Friday.

It really boils down to the pipeline that serves GA. The production STILL was not going on even After Rita was not as bad as predicted. The deisel was still going to run out in some school systems. By shutting down those two days it saved an estimated 500,000 gallons of fuel and gave the pipelines serving GA more time to get up and running again. I don't know if they are at full production yet or not. And yes, by making up the days later they will be using that fuel later but it will give an opportunity to get more of the lines back in top shape.

And what if he did change his mind later......Then all the parents that HAD found a place for their child and had committed to it and prob already paid would have lost their money and not been able to get it back. And prob some of the people that had already called in to work had been replaced would not be able to work anyway because they had already been replaced!! I know once I go to the trouble of finding a replacement for someone and then they tell me never mind ,it is not fair to tell the replacement that sorry I don't need you after all.

 

[ugadog99]

This is very interesting because we received an email last week with information completely different from yours. According to our email, in a conference call with the Governor, it was determined that we did NOT have to make up those days. Interesting......

 

[N.Bailey]

Up north here, we're quite accustomed to school being canceled in the morning after it's snowed and the roads are hazardous. Many have to deal with finding alternate day care during those days, so I'd view this as no different. I realize down south, you're all not used to it though.

We also have to make those days up. I see this as no different either. I think everyone topping their cars off was creating panic and a shortage at THAT particular time. IMO, your governor made that call to not contribute to that shortage. By the time the days would have been reschedule, all the refineries and such would have been operating again.

I can understand the frustration of not knowing though. I've taken my kids to school when it's been canceled and my kids have showed up back at the house when I didn't know they were letting out early due to bad weather. We've canceled a few times where it never amounted to anything, but when you're expecting a huge storm (we get bypassed at times due to our mountains), the school likes to err on the side of caution.

On a side note, our school district has been talking about adding a few hours to the school day and taking Friday's off every week. I don't think they're really considering it too heavily right now, but they're certainly making plans for it just in case.

 

[mum4jenn]

I think it is up to each school system. He wanted the systems to use early snow days but way down here we don't have snow days(one every 10 years or so) So some will not make them up and some will make them up. I am interested to see what my system will do. The school board ate at my school the day we all returned from those days off and they told me we would make them up BUT since so many people are upset about the county over from us making their days up.....and our school board meeting is on this Tuesday.... I wonder if they will break under pressure from the community???? Either way if we don't make them up there will be people griping and complaining saying the Gov. does not care about education and if we do make them up they will be griping saying they already had plans even though it is plainly on the calendar that some scheduled off days may be used as make-up days. Only time will tell. Maybe the more northern counties will not make them up and the southern counties will??????

 

[KIRSTIN'S MOMMY]

My dd goes to a private school here, and I knew about the public schools not being in. It was on the radio, the t.v., the newspapaper, none of which helped you out if you were out of town though I guess. Anyway, just wanted to subscribe and say "Hi" to a fellow Savannian (Is that a word? lol )

 

[N.Bailey]

My dd goes to a private school here, and I knew about the public schools not being in. It was on the radio, the t.v., the newspapaper, none of which helped you out if you were out of town though I guess. Anyway, just wanted to subscribe and say "Hi" to a fellow Savannian (Is that a word? lol )

I'm all they way up here in PA and I knew many schools were closed down there. Agreed, it doesn't do one any good if they're not listening to anything, but it was national news.

 

[golfgal]

No offence and don't blame your DH but I live in Minnesota and I knew your schools were out for those two days, it was all over the national news.

 

[disykat]

I knew as well. I think you were just unfortunate in your circumstances since you were out of town and not watching/reading news. I seriously doubt that very many people were caught unaware - irritated maybe, but not unaware.

I know it's frustrating to show up at school and have no one there! I did it once. It snowed across town and they started school late. Since we had no snow and hadn't had the tv or radio on, I didn't have any idea.

 

[Figment22]

I heard on the radio today (local Savannah station) that the state of GA is considering lowering the number of required school days from the normal 180 so that those two days don't have to be made up later on in the year. It's not definite as of yet, but at least it's being floated around.

 

[mum4jenn]

Hmmmmmm. I didn't hear anything on our news tonight about that but then again I was dozing a little because of a headache(almost a migraine). I guess if they said anything it will be on our morning news at 5:30 am!! They usually repeat all the stuff like that. I looked at out system website and they had a meeting tonight so I should find out something tomorrow what we have decided to do. I have no problem making the days up because that was what they said we would do way back in Feb when the new calendar came out...but if we don't have to make those days up that would be nice too!

 

[mum4jenn]

Our board decided NOT to make us make those two days up. I still have notread anything about the Governor shortening the school year but I looked on the website today and the current calendar has been updated to include the two Governor ordered "snow days". Our calendar for 06-07 is also on there along with the disclaimer that certain days will be make-up days if weather causes a shut down.