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The dates on the WCPSS calendar that has been on their website for well over a year state that the makeup days for weather are March 23, June 9, June 10 and June 11. Why they are throwing this curveball at the literal 11th hour, when they said the makeup days would be something else (again, not in accordance with their calendar) is beyond me. I know soooo many people - not just students, but employees - who have non-refundable plans for spring break it is ridiculous. Additionally, anyone who has teachers in their family (like we do) plans major events around the school calendar. You simply cannot tell people 2 weeks before the break, when they are most likely in the non-refundable period of their planned trip, that they have to be in school. What's worse, there are HS kids who have to choose between costing their family an arm and a leg or missing the equivalent of 6 days of school. AND - HS kids can be excused from their finals if they haven't missed more than one day of school and if they miss the 3 days of the now non-spring break, they are out of luck with that.
Add to that WCPSS' incredible cowardice in announcing this on a Saturday morning...it just doesn't get any worse. Personally, I will remember this at the next election.
We've had 17 weather days over the last 2 years. It's time for them to come up with a better plan. And then, they need to STICK TO IT.
Funny thing is they do it almost every year. Announce the days, catch a tin of flack, then change. Been doing it since I was in school 25 years ago. Guess the board is afraid of getting voted out.
“We recognize many parents make plans for spring break,” school board Chair Christine Kushner said in a statement. “But we also appreciate many more children will be right here at home and could take advantage of the only available stretch of quality instructional time left on this year’s calendar. We trust parents will make the best decisions for their families.”
For anyone who commented about "will let them know how mad I am/vote differently next time" ...
Sounds like this was a board-led decision. Ms. Kushner leads the board.
As noted - my kids are booked during Spring Break this year. We won't be in school. I'm also not worried about any "perfect attendance record", nor are my kids in danger of not doing well enough on their work or on their EOG's to care 5 minutes about this re-scheduling.
And yes, I care about the teachers. Imagine them - they could "easily" make up several Saturdays within the remaining schedule that weren't holiday weekends (read: Easter Weekend or Memorial Day).
If the Administrators and board members were so worried, then they'd find a way to be more family/teacher centric.
I am considering not having my kids go just to make a point. If enough people keep their kids out they won't be able to teach anything meaningful anyway. Unfortunately a lot of parents just had thei child are problems solved for 3 days.
Bo thank you for posting the link, I did not realize they changed the make-up days. I think they made the wrong decision. I think Good Friday and the two Saturdays were the least disruptive options compared with interfering with all of the pre-paid vacations that families and teachers have booked.
Also, we have just had two partial weeks and it is hard for classes to get back in a groove with lack of continuity and here we are again with a half a week. I would have preferred to have Good Friday as a school day and complete a full week, same with adding 2 Saturdays. I agree with Francois if you need to take your child to church on Good Friday then take them out for an hour or two, at least you are not scheduled to be out of town on vacation.
I am considering not having my kids go just to make a point. If enough people keep their kids out they won't be able to teach anything meaningful anyway. Unfortunately a lot of parents just had thei child are problems solved for 3 days.
I am thinking that so many teachers will be out that there will not be much taught!
I am thinking that so many teachers will be out that there will not be much taught!
Unfortunately teachers can run into trouble with taking time off at times like these. i will be curious to see who takes a stand. It's not like they are easily replaced with the current treatment they get.
Please pay close attention when you want to blame the NCGA for issues.
The WCPSS Administration and the WCPSS Board determined that Monday March 23 would be a (Teacher) Workday.
Therefore, just like the WPCSS Administration and WCPSS Board decided that all teachers Workdays wouldn't fall on a Friday because they didn't want teachers taking those days off as a long weekend ...they decided that teachers couldn't leave town easily after class on Friday March 20. The teachers schedule says "Hey, gotta come to work on Monday. Then you can have Tuesday-Friday off."
So, the teachers are only being told "sorry, Spring Break is only Thursday-Sunday, not Tuesday-Sunday".
And, if you asked your own teachers, you'd find they worked at school on days when the WCPSS was closed during February.
Hmmm, I don't know why this solution is any worse than any other they could have come up with. If they'd gone with Good Friday and two Saturdays, a different set of people would be inconvenienced.
As a teacher, working 50-60 hours over 5 weekdays was quite enough, and I would NOT have wanted to work any saturdays.
I wonder how many families in Wake County had non refundable travel plans for spring break? I'm willing to bet it is not a majority of families. Heaven knows I can't afford to go anywhere for spring break. But If I did have plans I couldn't change, I would just go on my vacation and not make a big deal about it.
Really? People would keep their kids home those days as a protest? What good would that do? Not going to reelect your school board representative as a result of some make up days? Just seems so petty.
The weather conditions inconvenienced a lot of people. I'm sure we will live to get over it.
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