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That's what a lot of "experts" posting on here don't know, that not only days but seat hours are counted (Maryland takes it down to seat minutes).
Also, the move to a shorter summer break was intended to help the same low performing cohorts that every single education reform over the last 30 years were aimed at to try to improve outcomes. They really haven't helped.
Kids spend X hours a day for X days a year in school. But when the day is done they go back to their homes (some of which change every few months) where there may not be dinner or a dinner that really isn't food, where the parents have never, not once ever, read to their kids. Where there are no books, magazines or even a Sunday paper. There might be internet but the kids likely can't access it.
We're talking about kids who come to school at 5 who don't know any colors, numbers or letters. Who, in some cases, are still in diapers, don't know their real name, have a vocabulary 1/3 that of other 5 year olds and who have zero knowledge of basic hygiene.
Mine largely lived in group homes, with minimum wage behavioral tech staff doing the day-to-day "parenting." Having a big structure-free gap with school out would have done them no favors.
Really? See this post. I don't know what is going on in North Carolina that they get so many snow days. It rarely happens in the metro Denver area, and we get far more snow than they do in NC. They must have a policy to call off school at the drop of a flake.
Because there aren't plows in NC. They pretreat the roads with a salt brine solution, and it is a joke. Each count has a couple of salt trucks. Any snow tends to turn to slush, then freeze, making roads an ice rink. When you teach outside of Mecklenburg County or the Triangle, it can take DAYS for the ice to melt on the country roads because they are so shaded. Even McDonald's closes down in NC due to snow. As a Michigan native, I was amazed at the complete shut down.
I had to dig for this, but this had us out of school for TWO days. You wouldn't even think about checking for school closing in northern states.
Really? See this post. I don't know what is going on in North Carolina that they get so many snow days. It rarely happens in the metro Denver area, and we get far more snow than they do in NC. They must have a policy to call off school at the drop of a flake.
Having lived in both Colorado and the Carolinas, there are a couple of things to point out. First, both Carolina's, esp NC, have mountainous regions. I know they aren't as high as Colorado, but back in the "hollers" it gets pretty treacherous even on dry summer days. But more importantly, is that more often then getting snow, we get ice. When an ice storm comes through, everything shuts down. When we lived in Colorado, didn't think a thing about a few inches of snow. Just pop 'er into 4wheel and keep going. Change that eight inches of snow into a half inch of glare ice, and 2 wheel, 4 wheel, even tracked vehicle, you're going no where. Where we live now, there are often days where school is canceled and nothing on the streets, but just a few miles away, over on the mountain, the buses can't run due to ice on the mountain roads.
Really? See this post. I don't know what is going on in North Carolina that they get so many snow days. It rarely happens in the metro Denver area, and we get far more snow than they do in NC. They must have a policy to call off school at the drop of a flake.
I live in Western NY. Our weather has nothing to do with NC, but NC along with the rest of the South doesn't have the equipment or salt to handle even a small amount of snow because it happens so rarely. People also do not know how to drive in it. Trees and downed power lines are also an issue - they have different types of trees than the North and mountainous areas like Colorado.
Even here, schools close for safety reasons. I live in a rural area and kids are bused in long distances. Over the years, many districts have lawsuits from accidents where children were injured or killed. School isn't worth a child's life.
Because there aren't plows in NC. They pretreat the roads with a salt brine solution, and it is a joke. Each count has a couple of salt trucks. Any snow tends to turn to slush, then freeze, making roads an ice rink. When you teach outside of Mecklenburg County or the Triangle, it can take DAYS for the ice to melt on the country roads because they are so shaded. Even McDonald's closes down in NC due to snow. As a Michigan native, I was amazed at the complete shut down.
I had to dig for this, but this had us out of school for TWO days. You wouldn't even think about checking for school closing in northern states.
I was in Winston-Salem February 2015 and there was supposed to be a big snowstorm - HUGE for the area. So I went grocery shopping and made provisions at my cousins house figuring well I'll eat peanut sandwiches and cereal if necessary. Plenty of bottled water...figured stick it in the snow if the power went out so it would stay cold.
Forget several inches of snow forecasted....try 2 inches of ICE! OMG! What a nightmare! It took days to melt. Nothing was open. You can salt until the cows come home, but nothing works on 2 inches of ice.
There were no air conditioned schools when I was a student back in the old, old days. There's no way we could have gone to school in June, July or August. In the even older days, a lot of children didn't even come to school until the harvest season was over in October. They were needed on the farm.
We started the day after Labor Day and got out just in time for Memorial Day. We had a couple of "teacher work days", two days off at Thanksgiving, two weeks for Christmas and Good Friday and Easter week off. It was a long hard drag between Christmas and Easter break, but we made it. We came back from Christmas and knuckled down for the semester finals.
Summer was a blissful three months of just being a kid.
That is a big issue. When school started after Labor Day, there was little need for air conditioning in the northern states. I remember maybe a week at the beginning and end of the school year when it was really hot.
Just speaking as someone who used to be a kid. I thought school should start the day after labor day and finish the last day of May. I always thought kids needed that break to just be kids for a while. Seems like summer vacations have gotten shorter and shorter over the years.
I graduated in 1972. We used to start school after Labor Day and finished in early June. My granddaughter finished up before Memorial Day this year and went back August 10th so she got about 10 weeks. Aren't there programs or food stamps for kids who seem to depend on being in school to have food?
There are programs for school kids that depend on schools for a regular meal, but I'm not sure they will reach all children that need it, but those needs are being addressed.
In Michigan the start date was creeping into mid-August. The tourism and farming industries screamed and the State passed a law prohibiting any school form starting before Labor day. It hurt both the ability to maintain cheap labor and cut the tourist season short.
That is a big issue. When school started after Labor Day, there was little need for air conditioning in the northern states. I remember maybe a week at the beginning and end of the school year when it was really hot.
Because the weather changes immediately after Labor Day to fall-like weather.
Take a look at these record highs for September in Pittsburgh. https://www.wunderground.com/history...eqdb.wmo=99999
Upper 80s/low 90s until the 26th.
Now you're going to say, "that's the record!", but it shows how hot it does get there. Even the first two weeks of October have record days in the 80s, and I remember being there for a wedding on October 10 where the high was in the 80s. Having grown up there and having lived there for some time as an adult as well, I can tell you, there are hot days in the early fall.
This chart shows the percentile temps, as you can see, the 75th percentile for September is above 80 until well into the month. And Pittsburgh wrote the book on humidity! https://weatherspark.com/y/19773/Ave...tes-Year-Round
That said, May as a whole is cooler than September as a whole, and August is a whole different ball game. Late August is hotter than late May, on average.
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