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RESPONSE TO QUESTION |
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Should San Juan Schools make up snow days Dec. 18-20?
Mid-winter break in February. To Whom It May Concern: I am a student at Friday Harbor high school, and thought to give my two cents on the matter of making up the snow days. I would have to say please do not take away from our Christmas break. Holidays are very important to families. As well travel plans would be very hard to change. If the school were to make up the snow days at the end of the school year teachers will have a hard time. Every one loves being in the sun, and if school is extend every one will be anxious to get out of school. Teachers will have a hard time because students will be restless and skipping school to go to the beach with friends. Making summer shorter would not make for any one to be happy. Mid-winter break may just be “for the rich”; however I’m not rich and look forward to the break every year. It is a nice break that just gives students a chance to recoup, and visit family if need be. Some students use it to an advantage and go visit colleges. And others like to have some fun. Some people suggested Saturdays to make up for the snow days. I would have to say no. No one would be happy if this would happen, students and teachers alike. The weekends are a chance to rest, have some fun, and catch up on some work. No one would like a one day weekend. As for a different time to make up the snow days I would suggest late start Wednesdays. I find those days rather pointless, and is just away for students to get more sleep or finish up some home work. I will admit that they are nice, but are inconvenient to find a ride to school. The school system seemed to be doing just fine before the late start Wednesdays, and plus it wouldn’t be for the whole year. As a side note I would suggest the school would put in some snow days in next years calendar. If there is no snow then students can go to school and the days could be taken off at the end of the year. Hope you take what I said into consideration. Thanks. Friday Harbor High students and teachers have the greatest hardship because of the "trimester" school year. Having 74-33-73 day terms verses two 90-day semester terms create a major deficit for the number of days for class time and nights for home studying without taking into consideration snow days and sick days. If the snow days happened during the 33 day "Winter term" the kids would lose 15 percent of their class time. Do we change the whole calendar to accommodate this? With the 90-day semester a five-day deficit would not be as crucial. I propose that the "fall term" be extended after the holiday break, lessoning the stress of the teachers and students during the next two weeks, giving the students time to study for finals during winter break. Move the winter term by one week. Absorb the five snow days in the spring term (during the mid-winter break-three days, end of school -two days). The main concern I have is getting back to a two semester school year. Though I would love to not have to pay daycare for two whole weeks at christmas, I think it is a little late to be messing with the break, plans are made. If you did have school those days, especially at the high school, no real learning would happen. It would simply be seat time to get the prescribed number of days. I think this is the wrong message to send to kids and the community. A better solution would be to offer the choice to the parents. Drop February Break or extend the year to June 22nd. That would mean that finals would remain as scheduled for this term, but that finals would be put off in June to ensure that real instruction happened, not just seat time! I would also have it stated that those taking their children out anyway for the February break need to know that makeup work will be required, and absences will be counted! The message must be clear that school attendance is important and our instruction will be of quality. The time our students spend in class keeps being eroded, yet I hear constantly how much more material has to be presented. Alternatively, waiting until June will give everyone plenty of time to adjust summer vacation plans if they are unwilling to give up the February Break. How about one day off Christmas break, one and a half days off both winter and spring breaks. That would spread the days around that any one student would have prior plans and miss school. I do agree with many of the letters written about winter break; it is a vacation for the rich, for the rest of us it’s a challenge to find day care and explain to kids that their parents aren’t rich enough to miss work and pay for an elaborate vacation to be with people they see every day. Is it possible to pull a day from each break rather then lump them all together? Might have the lowest impact on the majority of people. Greetings. While I understand both sides of this issue (of school snow make-up days), I keep thinking about how difficult and costly travel arrangements and family rendezvous plans are to change at such late notice. Unless we've got a significant number of subs willing and able to fill in, I'm wondering if our possible skeleton staff will be adequate to cover our students during those make-up days. Thanks for asking... I am a kid in the SJISD middle school and I think that we should make up the lost days in june because there is more time in the summer anyways, if we made it up Dec. 18-20 a significant amount of winter break would be gone, and not many people would be there anyways because of travel plans. I think giving up late start Wed. does not work because the school district needs to be reimbursed by the state for 5 new days, not an hours attached to days we are already in school. I think Wednesday late start should be considered a full day with regular start. That could be counted as make up time. This was a long break, but one that was not planned for. And, as for us, we have plans already for winter break. Plans that we would have to cancel, and that would be the same for several other family’s one would imagine. We may have more snow days and more time to make up. I vote we make it all up at the same time at the end of school year. It’s an inconvenience for everyone either way, but no one had any control over the storm. At least this way, we have more time to reschedule summer plans and reduce the risk of disturbing families winter AND summer plans due to the unpredictable weather. Make time to have family time… cheers! This decision will directly affect the attitude and attention span of the students....is it possible to ask the older students to vote on what they prefer? It's only fair to consider their opinions on the matter - they're affected the most by the outcome, and should be a part of that decision. Well, personally, I don't really care about the first week of Christmas break... But it seems some other people in the room disagree with me. It doesn't really seem like anyone wants to give up days anyway. Our breaks have been happening routinely for several years, and a lot of people most likely have events planned... But, mostly, us kids like days off for our brains to ooze. To make up days, and make it seem like nothing is really happening while we're making up days, is adding thirty minutes onto each school-day. I don't really know if you would need actual days, but whatever. Maybe this would back everything up, and make it way too confusing for everyone, but seriously, thirty minutes isn't that much, and we won't even notice the extra minutes once they start and stop. (This is obvious, but since there are about seven hours in a school day, we'd only need three school weeks to make up one day. It'd be a few months before we make it up, and I don't think it would feel like that big of a change). Thanks for reading, buh-bye. ... Oh, and by the way. I totally can't beleive they cancelled school on Friday. I was looking forward to that day. Ah well. These day should just be taken out of mid-winter break. Mid-winter break is already oddly placed and is way too soon after the long winter break to be neccasary. Plus everyone already has plans for winter break and pushing back finals would just interfere with all the plans that have already been made. Adding days onto the end of the school year would be pushing it too considering summer schedules for teachers and other people, so I would suggest losing mid-winter break this year and then seriously reconsidering it for future years. We could be using the days we lose on a badly placed break to keep for future snow days or other times the school is un-operable. I would vote for making up the snow days during mid-winter break as 1st choice and Christmas break as 2nd choice. There is no easy answer. It will be inconvenient for many, no matter what.I would vote for making up the snow days during mid-winter break as 1st choice and Christmas break as 2nd choice. There is no easy answer. It will be inconvenient for many, no matter what. Here are several reasons I feel the February break would work well. First of all, it does not matter if our children attend a half a day (Late Start and Conference days) or full days, those days count towards the 180 days school is required to be in session. Secondly, the mid- winter break in February is not based around a holiday that families are traveling and using the holiday vacation to spend with loved ones. I think more families are traveling to go skiing in February and the district would have more attendance than if they were to require students to attend over a holiday vacation. Lastly, nobody wants school in session later in June. The kids are already restless and ready to be active outdoors. So I hope the decision the district makes on Monday is a thoughtful one! We prefer to make up the days in June. Our family will be out of town beginning Dec. 17. Let’s NOT make up days during December. Nobody does things in June anyway, and we already have non-refundable airplane tickets as break starts. Now that school on the SJI will be closed for 5 days I think we need to take another look of options outside the box. I agree with everyone on not extending Christmas Break, Mid Winter break or the end of school year. Alot of people have plans with their families around the holidays, even teachers. Extending time would not be "the right thing to do." I personally don't agree with mid winter break, but many families here have made plans for that week too. Let's don't even discuss extending the school year. School is out too late in June as it is. A suggestion : Stop the late starts. Change school hours to 7:30 am to 3:30 pm. That would give more hours and not interfere with outside school activities. I'm not for Saturday schooling. Yes, take them at Christmas. Sounds good to us… it’s a very long break anyway. Some kids may be away, but many many will be here. There is no "good" solution to this dilemma. People will be ticked off and inconvenienced no matter what decision is made. However, in consideration of families who have already purchased tickets and made plans for the holidays (December, mid-winter, and Spring), it is best to make up 5 days of school in June. This gives families the most amount of time to plan ahead – 6 months out, instead of 2 weeks. Noooo! They shouldn't make it up. We vote against making up the snow days in December, everyone already has plans for christmas break and nobody does anything in June anyways. I have non-refundable airplane tickets for winter break. June is a rainy old month--let's go to school then. My suggestion is to make use of the ability to start earlier on Wednesdays, and also use the winter break time if necessary. Seems that the last few days have already given the students and faculty their "winter break" of sorts! Cutting into summer break is not advisable, since the weather is more conducive to time off at that point. Cutting into holiday time is not preferable either, due to costly penalties for changes in travel plans, etc. Let's face it - people like to have their holiday time planned, and it puts undue hardship on families to shorten their allotted time available. Three days of public schooling are not worth making up because those "make-up days" will be at the tip end of the school year and the students will be generally anxious about wanting to leave, and therefore will have a diminished level of focus and the days will just be a waste of money paying the teachers to hold on to the students for a few more miserable days. the standards are all ready low enough, but the amount of days alone is not as important as how those days are used. Who thought of this? terrible idea, that is a time to spend with family and friends and out of the shadows of school. As a student it does not make any sense to make the school days up over break!!! As many familys already have plans to leave over break a large amount of kids would be gone even if there was school. Speaking with a majority of kids in the school they would rather have them at the end of the school year, no one notices those extra few days. as for late starts, we should absoluty keep late starts those make the school week much better. A few days less of summer wont hurt us. A large majority of student would rather make up the days at the end of school. In conclusion pease don't take away our breaks you have no Idea how much we look forward to them. What about families who have purchased tickets which can't be refunded? I think Dec vacation make-up is a bad idea for those of us in this situation. Making it up in June would be better for us. We've already made plans for the Christmas holiday. We could return one day early from Christmas break and begin on January 1. We could also give up Martin Luther King Day in January. That would account for two days. Perhaps one day then could be made up during the mid-winter break and one could be added at the end of the year As far as making up the days in December, it would really depend if the finals were done before the last 3 or 4 days, so the families that have plans wouldn't have to worry about their kids missing their finals. As far as making up the days in February (mid-winter break), personally we have plans then to visit colleges. I know of others who also are doing the same thing. To surmise, we vote for the end of the year. The february mid-winter break is 4 days long (the Monday doesn't count because it's already a holiday) so just eliminate that vacation and everything is even. School already goes too far into June and many teachers have continuing education requirements at summer schools that start just as the currently scheduled school year ends. Yes, make up the snow days in December! Great idea!! What's going to happen if there are more snow days later this winter? How about a combination of eliminating some late-start Wednesdays, cancelling the early out on January 26th, and either shortening the spring parent teacher conferences to one or two days instead of three or making the conferences evening meetings only. Yes! Let's make up the snow days on December 18, 19 & 20th, if not the 21st. We have had a long break for Thanksgiving and we may have more winter weather that causes school cancelations. Let's have the kids go to school while the weather is cold and the days are short rather than in June when the sun is shining. -Anna Lisa Lindstrum I agree that cancelling late-start Wednesdays could be the solution that we need to make up the extra hours we've missed due to the snow. I also wouldn't be opposed to squeezing in a Saturday school day if that would mean that we could get out of school on the scheduled day in June (already pretty late) and not have to change any of the previously scheduled Christmas, Mid-Winter or Spring break days which would cause problems for a lot of families. I know this dilemma seems like a big deal to all of us now but I'm confident that it will all be figured out and I'm sure, that in the years to come, our kids will have great memories of all the fun they had in the snow these past few days and not when they had to make up the missed school days. Its absolutely ridiculous to even consider taking 3-4 days away from Christams/New Years break! And its just as ridiculous to add them to the end of the school year when kids, these days, get hardly any summer anyway! Take away that stupid MID-WINTER SKI break...its only for people who can afford to go play in the snow. Most families CANNOT afford to do that and it adds to expenses hugely for single parents who have to find day-care during that inane week break. Most folks have Christmas break plans already in place- money already spent...and I'll bet a good 1/3-1/2 of the kids are going to "the other parents house" off-island somewhere during that break, as well, and who's going to tell a kid that they have to go to school instead of seeing their mom/dad when plans are already in place and tickets are already bought? I know I'm not alone in wishing that Ski Break would GO AWAY...or use it for make-up days ALWAYS! School make-ups should be June as provisioned for. Holiday plans are already made for December, and school make-up during that time inappropriate. Let the travelers travel and don't black mail them by scheduling major exams on those three days as you have done so dreadfully in the past. I love the idea of no more late starts the rest of the year!!! December is good. My opinion would be to make them up as soon as possible. People will have made plans for both Christmas break and mid – winter break; that is undeniable but let them change them or take the planned family absences. The district can not make everyone happy with these needed holiday changes so it should instead look to make up the days sooner rather than later so as to have a fresh start for any more unforeseen weather changes that might occur in the next school semester. It is of our thinking that the school district just let it go- I am not certain that the 3 days needs to be made up- the kids are in school enough out of the year as it is. we vote "no!" Even my son is OK with making up days at the end of the school year. He says it's worth it to have these fun snow days now. Why not have a FULL last week of school. I think many families have plans for the holiday break already and most plane tickets these days come with hefty penalties and frankly I wouldn't change family plans for school make-up days. I know it's not easy to coordinate multiple family schedules and many families have planned ahead for Feb. as well. Why penalize the kids who will no doubt miss the Dec. days if added? Schedule the make-up days at the end of the year when all can attend. Make up the snow days during mid-winter break in February. That break is a waste of time anyway for most families. I also feel that they should give up the 'late start' Wednesdays and make up the snow days then. As it seems most people have already made plans for the holidays and from talking to the school district on the late start matter in the past their concern was more that if we had early release Fridays instead then a good amount of kids would not come to school on those early release days. Well Mr. Soltzman it sounds like most kids won't be coming to school on the make up days that are being suggested. Shall we change our approach? What a concept. Back when I was a kid in school (wow does that make me sound old!) we got out for Christmas around the 22nd, came back to school the 3rd of January (or the first Monday of January, but I digress). We didn't have Winter Break at all, and we had Easter vacation (which is now called Spring Break). Our breaks were much shorter, but as a result we got out mid-May (we started at the end of August). So I say take the make-up time from the February break---the kids just had an ultra-long Thanksgiving holiday, they get a long Christmas break, and then Spring Break is in April. Pending the final outcome of the week (will there be school on Friday?), it's an even swap. Of course it's easy for me to suggest--I'm not going to school (but my niece does)! i think that we should make up the school days during the xmas break since it is already too long... over two weeks off for xmas is just too much time stuck indoors when the weather is crappy... many schools back east only have off 5 or 6 school days then....another idea is to cancel a few of the late starts.....is this possible? I do not think that making up school in December is a good idea because : It is a planned vacation time during the school year (unlike Summer Vacation) and should not be depleted, Holiday planners have already scheduled and/or made reservations for vacation, or are looking forward to a long stay with family over the break, We don't know yet if there are more snow days to come before our Holiday Break, and by then it may be too many to take away from the planned days off, And students leaving for scheduled vacations may have to take the finals earlier because they are missing the actual final day. Perhaps we should make up our days during the Mid-Winter Break in Feburary because it is our only unique break that doesn't matter. It's a lame break anyways that doesn't help us much. Depriving days during the Christmas Holiday is a horrible idea! I DO NOT think that our snow days should dig into our break! Considering that most families have already made their plans for December vacation, it might be better to redeem the days during the February Winter Break. Realizing that some families will be going to Big White during that week, perhaps a lax schedule (no major projects due?) during that time? My two cents. Let’s just make up these days ASAP instead of later. Just take these days out of Mid-Winter Break. It would be awful to wait and keep everybody later into June, taking away MORE of their summer. Don’t take it out of Christmas Break, it’s a holiday, more students are unlikely to be here during that last week before X-Mas Break than they are before Mid-Winter Break anyway. Don’t cancel late starts, those I feel are necessary and good for the students. Mid-Winter Break is the least important break I believe and won’t cause any controversy if a few more days are added. That, I believe, is the most reasonable action. What happened to education before vacation? Leave Spring Break, Christmas Break, and summer alone. Everything else is fair game. Pushing the schedule into the summer is a terrible idea. It's crazy when our kids are still in school the third week of June when most other schools are out the first week of that month. Mid-winter break is an easy target. I've never understood why we need mid-winter break anyway. It's the worst weather of the year, and you're giving the kids the week off? That's dumb. Let them go to school in Feb. and on Wednesday mornings and have the summer off. Eliminating late start Wednesday is the best idea. Late start messes with the schedules of working families anyway, and is a bad idea. Wouldn't it make sense to make up the missed days in the semester they missed the days? I understand vacations, but what about education? The kids have to pass SAT's and WASLS etc etc etc. Let's finish this semester's curiculum before extending the next one! Yes make up at least a couple of them during winter break. Summer is too short as it is. Since the school calendar came out I was disappointed that "Christmas" break is so long. Then I made the best of the 2 + weeks off and made some plans for my family. So no, I do not want to make up these snow days Dec 18-20(21?). The school board and staff are going to do whatever is most convenient for them. Be assured these days will be made up as the school district needs this 3 days of attendence monies to operate within it's budget. For anyone and everyone that has plans scheduled around the previously projected school breaks....just keep them. In the life long scheme of things does missing one day or three days of school compare to that trip with mom's, dad's. grandparents, friends or any others really balance?? This is not to say you should go out and plan something new now but just don't bust up your life for a few snow days. Like wise if the school decides to add three days at the end of the year.....pray it's raining! Maybe the school board could get creative and add a day here or there. Maybe pick up a Saturday or cut out some of the half days. Good Luck to you I think you should not make up school days it is not our fault that the snow started to pour in. and it should just not be any school and this is Samantha’s son (Elliott) because I use her email. And winter break and all the days that we get a break from school should NOT be changed because you can just switch the schedule for school, buuuuuuuuuuuuut it would be very nice (not just for us but for everybody) (kids) we have plans to go to Mexico anyway so we don’t have to go! yyyyyyyyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Dear Editor, There is no question that at least three, and possibly four, days of school have to be made up due to the ice and snow we are experiencing this week. At the beginning of the school year, the San Juan Island School District made it clear for families to make plans to be away and take vacations during the planned school breaks; Christmas, Winter (February) and Spring (April). Children in our family have plans, and some reservations already made, to be away those weeks. So do many other families. Consider that 52% of marriages break up. That means that nearly half or more of the students at Friday Harbor Schools are living with single parents. Families often use these school breaks to see their other parent. How many hours make up a regular school day? Students are present from 8:15 to 3:55 PM and get a lunch break. High School students get a 15 minute break every day. Elementary students get recess. Is a school day considered to be 7 hours? According to the district schedule, there are 14 more late start Wednesdays in this school year. Correct me if I am wrong, but I understand that late start Wednesdays school days are from 9:45 AM to 2:55 PM. That makes the school day 1 1/2 (1.5) hours shorter. If my information and numbers are all correct, as of Wednesday, at 4:30 PM, Friday Harbor students have to make up 7 x 3 or 21 hours of school. If we started school at 8:15 AM on Wednesdays, it would take 14 days of "early" start to make up the snow/ice days. (1.5 hours X 14 = 21 hours) No one has vacation plans on late-start Wednesdays. Most regular students are on the island and doing other activities. Some are watching television, sleeping in, doing chores, homework for school, while others are practicing musical instruments. I vote for no more late start Wednesdays this school year to make up the three snow days. That way no one has to change their vacation plan, or miss lectures by teachers and/or exams. What are your thoughts to this suggestion? They should cancel winter break instead. Scott Dear San Juan Islander, The three of us COMPLETELY disagree with the idea of taking away some of our Christmas break. All three of us DO AGREE that you should use some of our mid-winter break since most schools do not even have one. This would be such a better idea since most families have plans for their Christmas break, and changing it now would disappoint many families, and confuse them, too. Since mid-winter break is a few months away, it would make much more sense to cut into that time than to cut into winter break. We hope you take this into consideration, and we think many will agree with our idea. Thank you! Sincerely, Kia Johns, Kayla Whalen, and Desi Whalen, all in the 8th grade No, I Think Us Students Should Be Able To Have A Few Days TO Have Fun And Spend Time With Family And Not Have To Make Up School Days. Especially For Some Kids Who Already Have Enough Trouble Trying To Make Up Even More Stuff When They Already Have Enough. That so I Think Not!!! I do not think that is a good idea – most of us have made plans to be gone for the holidays and it is too late to change those plans. Although my family plans on staying here in Friday Harbor for the Christmas break, many families have plans to travel during the holiday. Having kids make up the missed school days over the Christmas break doesn't seem to be the fair choice--too short of notice for travelers to change airline tickets, etc. Why can't we make up the days during the mid-winter break in February? This is giving plenty of notice for people to change any plans they might have made for that time. "No thanks!" to adding the missed days onto the end of June. School ends way to late in June as it stands now. Let's make it up in Dec. All the staff is there. Very good. What are we going to do about Thursday. We think that the days should be made up during our mid-winter break in February! After all, not all schools have this break anyways. Cutting days off of our Winter Break is preposterous! Especially this late of date. What if school is closed because of weather on Thursday and Friday as well, what will you do then? Make students go to school the whole first week of winter break? It sure seems like that's what the school district wants to do! Even if the school district decided to have school during the break, many students wouldn't show up. Families can't postpone their trips after so much planning. It's not fair to students, and it's not fair to their families! I would like to point out that every year we have snow days that need to be made up. People with childern who make travel plans should take that into consideration when making plans and make them flexible as school should be more important. Add the school days to the end of school in the summer. They can tack those days onto on into break- just know that will simply cause more hassle for teachers as about half of the student body will be gone! I for one would have to miss THOSE days too! Having the kids make up the three days thus far by starting Christmas break late would be just fine…If families have not already made Christmas travel plans. Some people do make plans in advance and have tickets already purchased. I hope the school board takes into consideration the number of kids who will not be here for the make up days during Christmas break. Instead of ending the school year in the middle of the week in June, use those extra days and/or just start the winter semester a few days later. Is it really that hard? I say yes to making it up mid winter break. I would prefer Dec.18-20 to the end of school. December 18, 19, 20 would be good for making up lost days. School until the end of June would be awful. Having school on the 18th, 19th, and 20th is not a good idea!! Not having school these past days has already gotten me frustrated, I love school but I have to say no to enterveining into winter break to add these days that are missed. I believe that most of the students have already made plans for winter break and they are not able to cancel in order to go to school on the 18th, 19th, and 20th. I am one of those people that cannot reschedule my plans. I know that I am not the only peron that has made prior plans. Also in having those extra days the school will probably make to 1st semester finals in those days. Some of the kids not being there will result in some kids failing or having dropped grades in their classes, in which they had done their hardest to do so well in. In having the make up days in June, to extend the school year, it will give kids a future warning so that they may not miss those days. Make up the days Dec. 18-20. I like the idea of making up the days during winter break, because with the days being longer in June I think it would be harder when its great beach weather! Bad idea, half the kids will be out of town for the holidays including mine. I Believe that having the days made up in December is a bad idea. That is the busiest traveling time of the year, and seeing how finals will be the last three days of school, that would mean that a lot of kids would miss their finals and have to do them earlier which means less preperation from the teachers. I believe that making up in June is fine and I believe if you took a poll you would find a majority of the kids, like me, who go to FHHS would rather have it made up in June then December. I agree with canceling the mid-winter break. I've always thought it was setup only for those rich enough to want winter ski trips. Christmas is family time. Sounds like a good plan. Do it. I am the father of Jonathan and Brandie Stump. I would like you to consider having these days made up during the next break, I believe that would be in February 2007. I have a court order to see my children three times a year in California.These times are Easter, summer and Christmas. I have booked and paid for this upcoming Christmas visit which is December 16 through 26. If these days have to be made up during this time, I must say regretfully my children would be missing three days of school, however I feel it is very important to my children and myself for these visits to go uninterrupted. I hope you understand how difficult this would make it for anyone that has plans and or travel arrangements especially during Christmas. I, Rhiana Franklin, a representitive in the FH Middle School, personally think we should make up the days in June instead of making them up in the winter break. I feel this way due to family plans for Christmas and other activities during winter break. I hope you take my suggestion in to thought I am speaking for myself and three other students. Thank you for your time. I don't think that December is the appropriate time to make up the snow days. Many families have tickets, reservations, and plans with extended family which at this late date would be costly and very inconvenient to change. There is a high likelihood that most would not change their plans, which would create a situation where classes would be poorly attended and teachers would need to cope with giving finals to the high number of students that would not be able to attend on the 18-20th due to prior family and travel commitments. Winter term has nothing to do with the days being made up in first semester. The district does not normally build snow days into the calendar. If there are more snow days in second semester, we would be looking at a very late finish date in June. Let’s knock a few of the make-up days out now, spring is busy enough! In addition to many students leaving for trips at this time, there will be quite a few staff members who are also planning to leave the island. Will the district be able to pull together enough subs to fill in for missing staff? When do we make up the missed days of school? During our Christmas Break!?!?!?!?!? This is precisely what is wrong with Winter Term. There is no "margin for snow days" built in to the First Semester. Any day missed is one less day to teach and prepare for the Finals which, by definition of Winter Term, must come BEFORE Christmas Break. Making up days in June is merely a counting game. Hence, the school district will always be up against stealing our Christmas Break away from us whenever a day, or two, three, or four days are missed during the first semester. I OBJECT to the school district taking our planned holiday away from us. We, for one, have reservations that WE ARE NOT WILLING TO CANCEL for the sake of a few snow days in November !!!! I suggest you think of another way to answer the question. Having school made up during this winter would not work out for a large majority of students. Personally I have perviously scheduled holiday plans. right now it is too late to back out this means I will have to miss school and since finals now happen before winter break I will miss finals. I do hope they choose to make up the snow days in December. The first week of winter break seems ideal to me considering childcare. I imagine that fewer parents have adequate childcare when the vacations are little(such as winter break), as opposed to the summer when vacation is so long, you have to have concrete childcare options already in place. This is why I am voting for winter break make-up. It sure would make life easier that week. We think the days should be made up in December. Winter Break - the one in February! At this point, Wed.11/29 at 2:50pm, we don't know if the School Dist.will close our Schools again Thursday 11/30. I think it prudent to wait until this storm clears and then determine the amount of days to be made up. Using Mid-Winter break or part of could also be considered for make-up dates. We vote December. I think this is a good idea. There will be more snow days this winter if the present conditions are any indication. The earlier that these can be made up the better. But, we do not have any vacation plans for those days in December and I am sure some do. Nevertheless, school is more important. I think it is a great idea but I don't have any traveling plans. Many people will be gone because of previously made plans. It may be advisable to just have teachers squeeze the work in to less days as they will have to do this for the kids who already have plans to be gone. Yes they should! I think it is not a good idea at this late date because people have already made their plans for this year, how about a weekend to two? Thank you Hi, my name is Josh Combs. I am a Junior at FHHS. Making up the missed school days during Chistmas break makes no sense to me, especially deciding to do so this late in the year. I would say atleast half the students plan to leave for christmas, so why schedual missed school for the beginning of the break, when half of the students will miss it again? I propose that we simply just add an additional hour to every monday or tuesday. This way we will make it up slowly, while hardly noticing the change in schedual. This makes much more sense to me than taking school days from breaks, summer, or weekends. Making up missed school days Dec 18-20 is a good idea. I believe the students should make up their snow days at the end of the year. We should not interrupt the traditional winter break and family time during this pre-arranged break. Families have trips, and relatives coming to visit, this would not be fair to the students and the parents. Teachers will find themselves giving finals early due to these pre-planned trips anyway. The school would most likely have low attendance during these three make up days. Most families look forward to the two week break during the holidays and it would be unfair to take this away due to the weather. The students obviously have to make the days up, but the end of the year would be a far more appropriate time. No, my family and I are traveling those days and that is unfair to people who already have plans. I think they should make them up in December, still leaves for a long break for the Holidays. The rate we are going, we may still have more snow days and can tack them on at the end of the year in June! Let’s not have school until July! Regarding the school district making up snow days over winter break; I would think many people already have winter vacation plans and that the school district should look to make up the days later in the year, with a bit more notice to families. I totally agree with making them up in december...it is better to have a longer summer break when the weather is good. I think that making the winter break three days shorter is a bad idea. First off almost nobody will be there because half the people have made plans for those days. Like my family and many others that I have heard of as well. So even if they made break shorted less people would go to school. I think the end of the year is a smarter choice. |
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