School System Strikes Again!

Of all the cocamamie, dumb bunny things to do!! OH MY GOD!! Our school system here has lost their everloving mind!!

Public school just let out for a full two week break for the Christmas holiday. TWO FULL WEEKS! People plan their vacations, they go out of town and for ONCE the scheduling actually MAKES SENSE!!

The last day of school was this past Friday, on the 16th and they weren't supposed to go back until the first Monday in January (on the 5th.)

Nice.

Even.

Great to take vacations...

YEAH RIGHT!!!

We had a little bit of snow earlier this year, back just after Thanksgiving. And the roads were icy so they called off school... the smart thing to do since we don't want our prodigeny riding home in dangerous conditions.

Ok, that is a bit of an exageration because when they say 'ice' we're talking about a minimal skim that MIGHT be on one particular bridge, on one particular road that doesn't get sun in the afternoon..ok? Truthfully it's not a big deal, but they take safety to the extreme right on into stupidity sometimes... but the efforts are for our kids, so we tolerate it for the most part...

So the kids missed a day of school.

I'm going to reminesce here a bit to add a little bit of clarity on why I'm so angry about this situation...

When I was a kid we used to be assured that we'd miss at least a few days through the winter for snow. The school board had enough sense back then to anticipate that and arrange for extra workdays for the teachers throughout the year. That way if we DID have snow days and had to make them up in order to make up work in that semester, the teachers would just sacrifice a workday and there was no problem.

But in the past few years, we don't get much snow through the winter, if any at all, and no longer does the school board see it as necessary to plan for missed days. Personally, I think that theory needs to be reexamined considering I can't think of a place in the world were you can guarantee that there will never be anything happen to make someone lose time at school. I don't believe that it's physically possibly to guarantee that and think that it's pretty arrogant of us to believe that there will never be any missed days throughout the year for whatever reason... but that's beside the point...

Remember how I said that they no longer plan for snowdays? Well, here's the evidence of that idiotic way of thinking. Dare I call it stupid? Yes. Failing to plan for ANY days off is a mistake and it doesn't matter WHERE you live. But here in the mountains, the kids missing a single day for bad weather is a given, even if we DON'T get the snow we used to.

They didn't plan for the missed day... and yes, I'm getting to my rant and rave here... lol

Back to vacation... two full weeks... yes... joyful... we are happy...

But now I see a note on the school website that the kids will have to go back to school on the FRIDAY before they were supposed to just to make up that one day.

and I reiterate.... Of all the cocamamie, dumb bunny things to do!! OH MY GOD!! Our school system here has lost their everloving mind!!

Suffice it to say that I'm NOT making my child go to school that day.

On principal alone.

It's one thing to make them make up a day that they failed to schedule, but to have to come back from a scheduled vacation three days early because of it is out of the question.

Are we going out of town? No.

Would we like to? Not really.

But that's not the point!!

There ARE families that are taking vacations.

There ARE families that need every day of the full two weeks to enjoy their holiday.

And now, because of this required make up day, those same families will be driving on what is notably considered the worst travel day of the year... January 1st... just to get home so that their kids can 'make up' a snow day...

It's not that the school system is 'making up a day' at all.... they are cutting the Christmas break by THREE days in essence. And they are jeopardizing lives by doing so.

Sometimes the idiots that make decisions that are 'in the best interest of our children' don't have a clue in the world about how much their decisions ARE NOT in the best interest of all involved.

Am I taking this to an extreme? some might think so, but the fact of the matter is this... this IS extreme. This is rediculous and it's unfair and unnecessary. And to put the icing on the cake, does anyone know WHY they need to make up this day?

I'll tell you why... because of seat time. Not because they might miss a test or need to catch up on their work... no... the semester of learning is over already. ANything that needed to be learned has been covered and final exams were given...

Seat time... that's all... The school won't get it's funding from the state if every child enrolled doesn't get enough 'seat time' in the classrooms... it has nothing to do with the learning process AT ALL!!

It's idiocy. It's rediculous. And while some might consider me a bad parent for not following the 'rules' on this one, but there is a time and a place to draw the line... and I've drawn it for my family on this one.

School board... get your act together and start acting with some sense... or get out!

Pissed off in the mountains!

Dragon Lady