People have another reason to hope that hurricanes don't batter this area too much.
If Wake has to cancel school this week, the first makeup day for traditional-calendar schools is Nov. 4 — Election Day. With more than 60 Wake schools serving as polling places, it could be messy for voters if classes are also in session that day.
The Wake County Board of Elections regularly asks the school district to not hold classes on Election Day. Usually the school districts settles for having a delayed opening to ease things during the morning voting rush.
But with record voter turnout expected this year, the school board agreed to make Nov. 4 a teacher workday for traditional-calendar schools.
Year-round schools would make up the time on a Saturday to be determined.
If two days are lost during hurricane season, the second makeup day for traditional-calendar schools would be Nov. 26 — the day before Thanksgiving.
One school, Ligon Middle, has already lost a day due to Tropical Storm Hanna. But Ligon doesn't serve as a polling place.
Ligon will now have classes on Election Day. But it will operate on a two-hour delay, just like the modified-calendar and year-round schools will that day.
Comments
HERE HERE!!
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 21:26 — g88ky07"Please do not insult MYR parents by telling us we have a "choice" to opt out to traditional school."
AMEN and HERE HERE!!
You can lie to yourself if you like, with your 4 kids and marathon "the system raises my kids" schedule, but bottom line is IT IS MANDATORY and many of us have had NO CHOICE with it!
If going to school on Saturdays works for you good FOR YOU! You can sleep in since you WORK the rest of the week and it will just be another day someone is watching the kids for you!
I get REALLY "irritated" too, can you tell?
Nothing makes sense about
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 11:24 — Anonymous (not verified)Nothing makes sense about early release on Thursday. It's stupid. I agree with you!
Early Release
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 12:58 — shank56What day of the week do you propose having Early Release which is used for staff development and why?
Having ER on Thursday gives the school a better shot of having more students in class on Friday, IMO. Have lived through a number of ER on Friday. Many parents would pull kids out all together on Friday, even Thursday and treat as a long weekend. Education first, right?
Ideally, Fridays would be
Thu, 09/11/2008 - 09:44 — Anonymous (not verified)Ideally, Fridays would be best. Since parents of younger kids have to take a half day off work anyways when the kids come home at noon, why not let families get an early start on their weekend? Our families are all 4-6 hours away - it would nice to be able to plan a weekend visit where we could be there by dinner time and spend an entire day without travelling, rather than drive up Saturday morning and back Sunday afternoon.
For working parents, Friday afternoons are also usually a better afternoon to take off work. There are fewer meetings and important events scheduled for Friday afternoons than during other afternoons. Many companies even close early on Friday afternoons. At least if they're not going to do it on Fridays, rotate the days throughout the week. I have a standing weekly meeting on Thursday afternoons that I will have to reschedule each time there is an early release and Thursday is the worst day of the week for me to have to be off. I know that for others different days are their difficult ones, but it does seems unfair that they all have to be on Thursday.
I never considered taking my kids out all day when it was on Friday and haven't noticed that to be a problem in our schools.
When I was a child in the
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 09:36 — Anonymous (not verified)When I was a child in the 1970's, we had make up days on Saturdays and elections were held in our schools on school days. This is not anything new and is not really that terrible. I have no scars from it. I missed a Saturday tennis class one time to attend school. I learned first hand about the elections. We also had to make up some days on holidays during particularly bad winters. Again, not really a big deal for me. Yes, I do think it's wrong to schedule school on Memorial Day, but as it stands now there is no truly "Mandatory" Year Round as everyone has the option to transfer to a traditional school if that calendar is their preference. As far as the Early Release Days, I wish they would move them back to Fridays like they had them last year. When I first got my calendar I e-mailed WCPSS to make sure they didn't have a typo on the dates or were looking at the wrong year calendar because last year they were all on Friday & this year they are all on Thursday and they said that no, previously the schools had a choice in setting their own ER Days but this year they switched to system-wide days. This is something I wish they would put back in the hands of the schools!
Please do not insult MYR
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 13:00 — Anonymous (not verified)Please do not insult MYR parents by telling us we have a "choice" to opt out to traditional school. On paper it is a "choice" but the "choice" is 'the frying pan" or "the fire". For many of us it's moving our children into another school with no guarantees that they will remain there as the court ruling could change that, and given the high number of opt outs ... the "changing F&R" demographics of the over burdened traditional schools will change from year to year, thus prompting more reassignments.
So, stay at a MYR and stay in the frying pan, or make the "choice" to apply out and jump into the "fire".... that's not a choice.
I never went to school on Saturdays and don't want that for my children.
We speak in this country of the decline of the family and family time spent together. WWeekends are PRECIOUS to our family! And given I have children on all different schedules now, I feel that weekends are not even enough time for us to have family time. Saturday and Sunday are the only days we eat all three meals together and talk as a family. Maybe that does not matter to some, and some find it stupid and "overrated", but for those of us who still cling to that "Family time"... it is priceless!
Just because the good folks at WCPSS can't seem to figure out how to manage this school system, the family unit should not suffer because of it and that includes taking away family time for Saturday school time.
I don't mean to insult
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 17:27 — Anonymous (not verified)I don't mean to insult anyone, but yes, you have a choice to put your child on the traditional calendar even if that makes putting your child in a school that is further away, has a higher F&R, or may mean you will be assigned to a different school. I wish I had the choice to put my 2nd grader in a year-round calendar school. Yes, it would have been further away, she would have been reassigned this year, and the new school has a much higher F&R than her current school and is more crowded, however I would still put her in that school if I had the option. That calendar better suits my child's learning and our family's schedule and I have applied every year for YR and been turned down. So you get a choose between the "frying pan" and "fire" but I get stuck with whichever the school board chooses? So, yes, I get really irritated when people claim they are forced into year-round knowing that they are fortunate enough to have made that choice.
I have four kids & different schedules and my husband and I both work full time so every bit of family time is important, but having school one, maybe two, Saturdays a year is not a big enough inconvenience for us to fuss over when this school system has so many other problems.
YR should be VYR
Thu, 09/11/2008 - 07:07 — Lisa_BWhen a change was FORCED upon a school population that was NOT needed to deal with growth and has split families onto different schedules, and then the "option" given is unrealistic/unappealing, NO there IS NOT a realistic choice for the MYR families.
Whether someoone prefers traditional or prefers YR does not make one person right and the other wrong. It should be a TRUE choice, not coerced in order to make numbers look good on paper.
YR works for a small percentage of the families and should remain VOLUNTARY not MANDATORY.
I'll keep hoping that FINALLY this year they'll correct their mistake and get rid of MYR in Wake County "for the families" and also "for the taxpayers".
posted this elsewhere but
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 21:07 — bigwinnieposted this elsewhere but moved it here because really?
a little birdie told me that ALL transfers out of LES are being denied. any way to hear that from WCPSS or is that just one more "dirty little secret" and the majority of those transfers fulfil certain percentages at LES, which as you know is MYR, made into application also because they couldn't get the numbers up. Now we are at 988, projected for 1089, then whatever they lowered it to again, and we STILL can't get there, so now they won't let anybody out....
MYR was not a choice of
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 20:51 — Anonymous (not verified)MYR was not a choice of mine. The school board made it for me.
You are not outraged your child can't get in YR? My eldest child was denied two years in a row back in the day to go to a YR... the only YR in this area and it was "exclusive" .... Parents would call it their "private school"
Bottomline, no parent has a "choice"! That's WPCSS's way of saying, "We are shutting you up for the short term, but make no mistake, we will assign you where we want, when we want, and how often we want."
I can't wait for my kids to be out of this system and I will vote no on any upcoming bonds until the BOE (ER) changes and there are responsible SMART people without these insane agendas to lead this school system.
Selfish comment
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 20:00 — Voice_of_Reason_Maybe voluntary YR would be good for you, but manditory YR is not the norm for 97+% of the country. Just because you are happy doesn't make it right. If there are enough people like you, I don't have a problem with voluntary year round as long as you can fill the schools. A lot of F&R parents don't want it either because it cost them extra money they don't have. If we have to have magnets, make them YR, and utilize them fully.
Speaking of those half
Tue, 09/09/2008 - 21:12 — H2OGuySpeaking of those half teacher wordays....what's up with those "half days" "Early Release days" AAAALLLLLLL on Thursdays this year????? Heard that WCPSS decided that this year for the schools.....tell me about what makes sense with that????????????
.
Tue, 09/09/2008 - 18:38 — Voice_of_Reason_.
That is so minor compared to the others
Tue, 09/09/2008 - 16:49 — Voice_of_Reason_At least it was within the apartment complex, not miles away on a rural road.
OT, another bus mistake another child
Tue, 09/09/2008 - 16:35 — bigwinniehttp://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1212377.html
No way my child is attending
Tue, 09/09/2008 - 13:58 — Anonymous (not verified)No way my child is attending school on Memorial Day. I did notice that the traditional calendar schools are scheduled to be off that day. Got to keep those ITB parents happy.....
yeah, I gotta say I already
Tue, 09/09/2008 - 11:04 — bigwinnieyeah, I gotta say I already feel a fever coming on for that day....
We WILL NEVER attend an MYR
Tue, 09/09/2008 - 10:57 — g88ky07We WILL NEVER attend an MYR school on Memorial Day at our house.
So stick that one in with no Saturdays and the school board can JUST deal with our absence!
We won't be thinking twice about either!
Guess..
Tue, 09/09/2008 - 12:12 — gunfam..that's an "plus" for being on Track 2?!? We are tracked out over Memorial day :)
My children will be home
Tue, 09/09/2008 - 14:29 — rr77rr99My children will be home with me on Memorial Day as well.
So sad, because I am a believer in never skipping school ever and I have always told my children that it's your "job" to be a good student and go to school. Now I could care less and my kids sense that attitude I have adopted.
They know I would never make them attend school on a Saturday especially when the rest of the world does not live on that schedule. We've paid for participation in "extra cirriculars" they don't get in school because there is no money for them, and now I have to lose the money I put out for Saturday programs because they have make up days. Uh.. no. What about the parents of kids on travel soccer or baseball teams. Parents lay out THOUSANDS of dollars and invest countless hours in these types of things and WCPSS bascially says, "too bad" .. or .. "It's a choice you will have to make."
That's so unfair to put the kids in that position... is it school or your team? What will it be? It may not seem like a lot of stress on a kid, but it is. This is their "world" and WCPSS is putting the burden on them to make impossible choices they don't need to be making at their age.
These are the kinds of things WCPSS does NOT think about when they are sitting around making these brilliant decisions.
don't forget
Tue, 09/09/2008 - 10:55 — bigwinniethis is also the school year where MYR's have school on Memorial Day.....
November 4
Tue, 09/09/2008 - 09:57 — Tammy (not verified)I couldn't figure that our either ,that the first make up day was November 4-why not the 3rd?I thought the reason the schools were closed on that day was because the schools would be so crowded with voters which now days is actually unsafe with the students there .Also the parking lots would be full with no room for the teachers ,bus drivers and even volunteers to park!
I am suppose to vote at a year round school.I didn't know that they were open Novemeber4.Doesn't the BOE know that this a major election and the polls will be crowded and as a voter I want a parking spot !
Here Here G88! No way no how
Tue, 09/09/2008 - 09:14 — rr77rr99Here Here G88!
No way no how are my kids going to school on Saturdays.... another thing parents of forced MYR kids don't quite pay attention to. Go ahead, poll some parents ask if they know that make up days are on Saturdays.. you'll get the "huh? wahat" look.
Forget the hurricanes (that never come it's always media hype... ) what about some ice and snow? We're long over due for an icy winter. One good ice storm and that means , what three days, four days of school closure?
On another note, why are schools even OPEN on the presidential election years? Our school is a huge MESS all day long! A two hour delay does not help anything and makes more of a mess with traffic.
Again, show me the planning with this one? Show me the planning! Speaking of which, why isn't Election day one of those 1/2 teacher work days then? Give the students the entire day off with only the teachers having to deal with the "picket line" of "who to vote for" in front of the school doors and the lack of parking spaces, etc.
Relax
Tue, 09/09/2008 - 09:02 — g88ky07Ike is coming NO WHERE near here.
Make up days or not, our children WILL NOT make up anything on Saturdays.
Except their beds!!!