Make-up Fool’s Day
Posted on | April 1, 2010 | Comments Off
The weather has caused the Glen Rock school system to close a few more time than they’d like this year. This puts them behind the eight ball in getting to the requisite number of academic days needed by law. The decision was made to make up one day during spring break.
Thursday.
This Thursday.
Today.
April Fool’s Day.
The motivation for the decision is clear – take an opportunity to make up a day by reducing vacation. This seems to make sense except that it doesn’t.
The news of this decision came very close to the beginning of the vacation meaning anyone who had any plans to travel with their kids was not going to make it back to school on that Thursday. In addition, getting kids motivated to school only to lull them back into the arms of another 3-day weekend means the activities on this Thursday would be lost – no continuity, homework or follow-up for another 3 days.
Finally, this decision puts the burden of attendance back on the parents. It no longer becomes a vacation day that the kids had off anyway. The parent (us) now has to decide whether it’s worth altering vacation plans to make their kid go to school today or to miss it at which point the child is penalized for missing the day. The school needs to be open a certain number of days a year. That’s clear and understood however when making decisions to alter the vacation schedules (many of which have to align with other schools’ schedules, work schedules, sitter schedules, etc) it would be advisable for the city to present its plan significantly sooner to the parents.
