School Board just cancelled day off in February

[IDoDis]

With less than 30 days notice!

We got the call today that the school board was canceling part of the President's weekend holiday due to the weather days we had because of the ice storm earlier this month. The kids now have school on Thursday, February 17th. That's great other than the fact that this is less than 30 days out so people like DVC members (ahem) or those going on vacations like cruises can't make changes to their reservations without penalty.

I'll put my flame suit on because my kids will NOT be attending school on the newly added day since we already have reservations at Kidani.

We just found out about this TODAY. Apparently the school board forgot to factor in any type of weather days into the calendar so they pulled 2 days off the schedule - 1 in February and 1 in March.

DD12's teacher already told the kids she will have a sub in that day because she will be gone on vacation. I can't imagine my child will miss too much with a sub in place.

Hopefully they will plan better next year!

How many days do you get off for Presidents' Day? We've only ever gotten one day -- not a 4 or 5 day weekend. Presidents' Day is on Feb. 21st. So you are already lucky if you get more than one day for that!

Besides that day, we only have 5 days for spring break and the friday before Easter off until the end of the school year. It's going to be a l-o-n-g second semester!

 

[Pigeon]

Yea, however this has not been a typical winter so far, especially for most of the south for example. Even here in NE TN where it hasn't been as bad, some schools have used up all of their built in snow days (and we are talking 8-10 days) and have already had to take away some of the one day school holidays. They have also already chosen the next set of days that will be used in case we get another winter storm. Some schools are close to losing their spring breaks due to the weather we have been experiencing.

I do agree that it shouldn't be a huge deal to have your kids miss that day though (as long as it wouldn't put them over in allowed absences for the year or cause them any negative consequences). I have a feeling a good number of kids will not be there on that day.

The OP stated the board did not factor any weather emergency days into the calendar. That's just plain stupid.

In any event, while we generally follow the rules, and our kids don't get to stay home for "mental health days," I would have no problem saying what I needed to say to get an excused absense in this situation, if we had already planned a vacation and the board pulled this nonsense. But that's just me.

 

[ClarabelleCowFan]

Thanks for letting me vent. I am just floored that they didn't have anything built into the schedule already. The district we just moved from (we're military so we move often) had built in days for weather so we knew in advance that if the kids missed a day or several during the year when they would have to make them up (part of Spring break, teacher's work days or at the end of the year).

This last minute thing is just frustrating. I can bet that the schools will be operating on a skeleton crew with a handful of kids that day. This was supposed to be a 5 day weekend so several people had scheduled trips during this time.

This area isn't prone to snow but it isn't unheard of to get ice or even tropical storms or hurricanes roll through and cause issues that would call off school. Some sort of contingency plan should have been in place up front.

I just hope that they take action now in regards to next year's calendar and go ahead and designate make up days for any weather or school closing issues.

 

[MushyMushy]

Where do you live that this is such a surprise? I can't remember the last time my kids had a President's day off because it's always being used as a makeup day. They had to go on MLK day as well. We also have a couple of teacher inservice days that we can use (Feb/Mar) and part of Easter break. After that, they start adding days on to the end of the school year.

 

[ClarabelleCowFan]

Where do you live that this is such a surprise? I can't remember the last time my kids had a President's day off because it's always being used as a makeup day. They had to go on MLK day as well. We also have a couple of teacher inservice days that we can use (Feb/Mar) and part of Easter break. After that, they start adding days on to the end of the school year.

Georgia

The surprise is the lack of planning on the part of the school board - not in the fact that the days have to be made up.

 

[tvguy]

I'd take the vacation with the kids and I wouldn't think twice about it. It's the school board's job to make the schedule and that includes planning for the typical snow days.

Not sure it makes any difference when they do the make up days, because someone is bound to have made plans for those days.
Never been an issue for us because almost every school break is during a time period when my employer, and my wife's employers don't allow any vacations (they also will contact the courts if you get jury duty to get it moved, and discourage sick days).

 

[clori]

We have 5 snow days built into the calendar (get up 5 days earlier if we don't use any). So far we have used 2 days. Prior to this my dd has had 1 snow day a year if any. Tonight I got an automated call from the superintendant saying that they have cancelled a teacher workshop day for Friday Jan 28th. No reason was given. Since we already had plans dd10 was not pleased by the phone call. Fortunately dd6 won't really know the difference.

 

[Bell30012]

The OP stated the board did not factor any weather emergency days into the calendar. That's just plain stupid.

Sometimes school boards look at the fact that they have not had enough snow to cancel school in many years and don't build in snow days when working the calendars. Our school district had snow days in 1993 and 2000. Other than those two years snow days just haven't been needed.

Who would have expected that we would have to take four days off due to a couple of inches of ice on the roads? We are also in Georgia.

 

[hereyago]

Not sure it makes any difference when they do the make up days, because someone is bound to have made plans for those days.

And even if they didn't have plans for that day, still go "oh my kid isn't going to make up that day, or they arent going on a saturday or have a few longer school days.

A hurricane came in 2003, our school was out about a week. Elementary schools have half day Wednesdays, whining everywhere about oh our kid's have to go a few wednedays on full days, a whopping 2 and half hours more than usual.

 

[pacrosby]

Doesn't anyone else find it irritating (amoungst other things) that the concern has nothing to do with actual learning. It doesn't seem to matter how many of the teacher's are going to be there. Doesn't matter that a large percentage of the student body will be likely be out. All they care about is that they hit that magic 180 days.

Just as crazy when they add days to the end of the school year. Heck, they never really seem to do all that much those last few days. Seems good sense has flown the out the window. All that matters nowadays is that we are abiding by 'policy' ugh

 

[snowy76]

Up here our districts build in about 3-5 snow days (we've had over 100 inches so far this season where I am) and at least one "cold day" (where windchill hits minus 25 or so)... so many schools are actually in session over 180 most years. Since it's a law, districts have to juggle these dates when unpredictable weather happens.

We've rarely had to give back days off because the snow is expected. Since we're in school until the last week of June anyway, they tend to add/pull from Memorial Day weekend. That being said, heavy snow is a fact of life up here, so I can see how it wouldn't be on the minds of a school board in Georgia!

 

[FlightlessDuck]

In Pennsylvania, schools are required to be in session 180 days, and can't go past June 30th. I believe our calendar currently has 2 or 4 built in days, but if we lose days, we know that some will be added back in around Christmas or Easter and a few in-service days throughout the year.

To be honest, I think my kids have off President's Day only. Not the Friday before, and certainly not the Thursday before.

 

[Planogirl]

I always tried to avoid letting DS miss too many days but I'm afraid that he'd miss that one! That's not right.

 

[aprilgail2]

How many days do you get off for Presidents' Day? We've only ever gotten one day -- not a 4 or 5 day weekend. Presidents' Day is on Feb. 21st. So you are already lucky if you get more than one day for that!

Besides that day, we only have 5 days for spring break and the friday before Easter off until the end of the school year. It's going to be a l-o-n-g second semester!

Really? We have off Feb19-Feb 27th Presidents week- we never just get one day for that! They have off again April 16-26 for Easter break. We have had one snow day so far so they have lost the 4 day memorial day weekend day, its now become a 3 day weekend. If another snow day then we have the last day of easter break taken.

 

[Mermaid02]

With less than 30 days notice!

We got the call today that the school board was canceling part of the President's weekend holiday due to the weather days we had because of the ice storm earlier this month. The kids now have school on Thursday, February 17th. That's great other than the fact that this is less than 30 days out so people like DVC members (ahem) or those going on vacations like cruises can't make changes to their reservations without penalty.

I'll put my flame suit on because my kids will NOT be attending school on the newly added day since we already have reservations at Kidani.

We just found out about this TODAY. Apparently the school board forgot to factor in any type of weather days into the calendar so they pulled 2 days off the schedule - 1 in February and 1 in March.

DD12's teacher already told the kids she will have a sub in that day because she will be gone on vacation. I can't imagine my child will miss too much with a sub in place.

Hopefully they will plan better next year!

No flames from me! Enjoy your vacation!

 

[J3nn78]

I don't understand what the big deal is??? This happens to us every few years and we often get less notice than that. Just go on your trip-there is no sense in stressing about it or making a big deal about it.

And it is not the school's problem or concern to think about people's travel plans (especially those with DVC). Their job is to provide the required number of days to educate your child.

 

[Bell30012]

Our school district Walton County, Georgia is actually on a 160 school calendar. So having four snow days is devastating.

 

[agnes!]

Doesn't anyone else find it irritating (amoungst other things) that the concern has nothing to do with actual learning. It doesn't seem to matter how many of the teacher's are going to be there. Doesn't matter that a large percentage of the student body will be likely be out. All they care about is that they hit that magic 180 days.

Just as crazy when they add days to the end of the school year. Heck, they never really seem to do all that much those last few days. Seems good sense has flown the out the window. All that matters nowadays is that we are abiding by 'policy' ugh

Yeah, it's policy, but it's really because of Federal funding and the No Child Left Behind Act.

Our school district Walton County, Georgia is actually on a 160 school calendar. So having four snow days is devastating.

Well, they might have 160 calendar days but their school-day HAS to be longer than the classic 6 hours to make up the difference by the end of the year...how many hours per school-day do your kids spend in school? If they aren't fulfilling the required 180 days, they can't legally get Federal funds.

I know DD's high school realized a year or two ago that they were allowing too much time between classes for everything to add up right so that year they had to shave off time-between classes, they now instead start school at 7:20 instead of 7:30 am to make up the difference.

agnes!

 

[pilesoflaundry]

We lost the entire week! I was really upset. No one can cancel plans that short notice and we have out of state plans. I had a chat with the superintendant about it. There are many staff members upset also, this never happens so of course they booked tickets too.

I am not sending my kids and the super is excusing them for anyone that has out of state plans, at least in my district they are. I was worried because they are going to miss 5 days. If it is just one day in the middle of the week I would pull my kid and go on my merry way.

 

[pilesoflaundry]

double post