Poll: Breaks affected by the cold and snow

[castawaycayfans]

We are in NC and have had 6 missed days due to the weather. The first one will be made up on Monday, the second on March 28, the third one forgiven, fourth and fifth will extend the last day of school to June 13. The last makeup day is TBD and there is talk of using Spring Break. We have PIF for our cruise during that time, so that would be a big problem for us. Unfortunately, we also have a problem with June 12-13, as our DD16 is scheduled to fly to the Dominican Republic on June 12 for a school related, not sponsored trip. The high school exam schedule will be moved and now we have to contact her teachers to see if she can take her exams early. UGH. The governor is looking into the possibility of waiving the extra days and if he did, then it would be a lot less stress on us. So, cross your fingers...

 

[Hasil72]

I'm in southern NJ and neither the school I work for nor the school my kids attend have any built in snow days. My kids' school added 3 to the end of the year first and so far have taken an additional 2 off Easter break. Now the school I work for has done the opposite, they took 3 off Easter first and now are adding to the end of the year. Now we need to decide if we should postpone our Easter trip or pull the kids a few days. :-(

 

[eliz603]

Here in NC, we've had 6 snow days. One will be made up on Monday.

When the school calendar is released, they also release a list of make up days in order of being added to the calendar. Spring Break isn't listed as being sucked up for snow days this year. Hopefully, the 10" we had this week are the last ones (it's supposed to be 70 here next weekend).

There was a big stink a few years ago when SB went from 5 days to 2 in order to make up snow days. The system responded by saying all absences those days were excused, and subsequent calendars have been kind to SB.

Our system had built in days as well. There were just two, though. It's kind of complicated, but while our kids are in school 180 days as mandated, the school day is longer. So when it was examined in terms of hours spent in class, there were 2 extra days in class that could be forgiven.

We're going to Disney for our SB, which is the first week of April. It really doesn't matter if those days are ultimately taken up because we're going anyway!

 

[minnie1012]

It's snowing yet again! I picked other for the poll. We are in NJ near the shore so typically we don't get a lot of snow (except for this year!) so we are only allotted 2 snow days. The calendar stated if we went over that before February we would make up one day on President's Day so the kids have school on Monday. The rest of the days are being made up at the end of the year. The last day was supposed to be June 19th so I think now the last day might be June 24th? I actually lost track! The days will be made up until June 30th (in several non air conditioned schools). If we go over that (please no more snow) then they lose days from spring break. Last year we had to make up like 2 weeks from the hurricane but they did that with a day here and there so it wasn't all at once.

 

[delilah]

We are in south suburb of Indianapolis. My son just transferred schools from a Catholic HS in Indianapolis to a suburban public HS. We have had 6 snow days so far. Two don't need to be made up due to a "waiver" because of a natural disaster. The public school used a day in mid March that was designated on the calendar as a "snow make up Day", and then they scheduled classes for the week following Memorial day. Now, they are up to Thursday. The parochial school used President's day, Martin Luther King day, Easter Monday instead of the days after Memorial day. I had our annual trip to WDW scheduled for the week after Memorial day, and I recheduled it to the week of June 8-15. My son and husband are planning to go camping with the boy scouts the week of June 1-7. I am not sure what is going to happen to the camping trip if school is extended further, but, I know we are all going to Florida the week of June 8.

 

[Talking Hands]

In So Fla so we don't have snow days. And luckily we haven't needed any hurricane days. interestingly we can't send the school buses out of the winds are over 35mph but the schools don't get closed. It is up the parents to bring the kids in or not. Sometimes the only kids present are teachers; kids

 

[Gumbo4x4]

We didn't schedule a full week off here. 2 days off in March, 3 off surrounding Easter. As I understand it, 1 of the 2 March days will be used for makeup. The remaining makeup days are being tacked on in May (possibly June).

The last time we did have a full week "Spring break", the school specifically laid out that those days would not be used for snow makeup days no matter what. With a week off planned, they knew attendance would be horrible if they had to take those days back. I believe breaking it up into 2 pieces is done for the purpose of making sure nobody plans to go away, and therefore the days will be available to take back.

IIRC, we've missed 11 days so far.

 

[MomofKatie]

We live in Union county, a suburb of Charlotte. We have scheduled Monday as a make up day, as well as March 7th and April 21st. We have, I think, 2 more days to make up from this past week (might even be 3- I can't keep track anymore). School officials have not decided yet what they are going to do- we have already lost one day of Spring Break.

Right now, the only other day we have on the school calendar we could take away is Memorial Day (besides the weeklong Spring Break leading up to Easter). Several other metro counties have had Saturday sessions already this year- that might be an option for our kids, too.

 

[WorldWacky]

We had so many here in CT last winter that this year they preemptively shortened this year's February break (though they didn't announce it until just before the start of the school year, so a lot of people already had week long vacations scheduled, so whoops), and so we've got a few extra buffer days, but we're eating through them fast. Don't know what they'll do if we run out of days in June.

This is what worries me for next year. We have had a Disney cruise planned for President's Week 2015 for two years. As soon as the dates opened up, I moved our dummy date to that week. We always plan our trips around school vacations. But for something like this, I honestly wouldn't hesitate to pull the kids out. DH is another story. He's a teacher and THAT could really screw things up for us.
So far this year we've had four snow days. Two were taken from our 5 day Memorial Weekend, the Monday before Easter is now a school day and they haven't told us when we'll be making up that fourth day. I don't know if they'll have schools open on that Tuesday, because that's when Passover begins. Around here, Passover determines whether our Spring Break will be the week before or after Easter.

 

[kittyab]

wow - that is seriously hardcore! I find it so interesting to see how different school districts handle the winters. Here in Maryland, we have gotten to be more sissypants and they are calling off school all the time.

I like the way Alberta handles it - haha! But what about the teachers there? Are they expected to be at school no matter what? I guess so! I would love to tell the teachers here that....there would be rioting at the Board of Education offices.

With teacher contracts and how much education time there is the schedule... there is no wiggle room. The Teachers come to school regardless of how cold it is. I have seen temps as low as -60c with the windchill. If we had a blizzard same goes, school is open. Freezing rain, school is open.

If the buses are not running, parents have the choice to take their children to school or keep them home.

Now in Alberta, snow tires are common place. So are Parkas, winter boots, and toques!