School Days (Albuquerque: renting, how much, schools)

[Draconi7]

I have noticed, especially in the elementry schools, in the middle of the week they let out early. Why is this. I also notice that they close the schools anytime there is one or two flakes of snow. I do understand that Albuquerque is in the "southwest" but come on people, we live near the "mountains".
I grew up in a time when the parent-teacher conferences were held in the evening AFTER school, we didn't get out of school early except for really heavy snows (blizzard conditions),Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Is it a wonder why our schools are ranked 48 out of 50?

[_yb]

The union has taken control of the school system.

[sskkc]

Albuquerque does not have plows. I cannot believe how many people who live here do not know this! School gets canceled because while it's coming down, they have no idea how much is coming and don't want children to become trapped at school. School was canceled for today (and I suspect the rest of the week) because there are 498 parking lots and 4 snow clearing teams. They had gotten 131 of them cleared by last night. They've tried hiring others. People just don't have this equipment here. The busses will not be able to get around the residential areas because the streets still have not been plowed and the side streets were not salted or sanded. We still have a ton of ice and snow on our street.

When it snows here, generally it melts within two hours of the sun coming up. 15 inches falling within a 36 hour period without a break in the clouds... this cannot melt within a few hours. We're expecting more snow Friday. I can only hope the temp will go up enough to melt enough of this stuff by Monday.

I don't know anyone here with a snow shovel. We had a LARGE gardening shovel, and all the neighbors came over to borrow it. I still had rock salt leftover from the summer, so between that and my husband's diligence, our driveway is the clearest around.

I do not know why school's get out early on Wednesdays, but I do know they're supposed to use the time as "Inservice".

The schools are ranked 48 out of 50 here because of parental apathy (in my opinion), not attendance problems. My son is in first grade. He is given homework every night (real simple stuff, write your name 10x, write three things that rhyme with cat plus spelling lists and 2x a week math). There are 20 students in his class. He is the ONLY one who has never missed an assignment. The ONLY one. At this age, this is a PARENTING issue, not a child or teacher issue.

By the way, some areas of the foothills got 30"... that is a blizzard!

[finmqa1]

AMEN sskkc, AMEN!!!!