At their regular meeting Tuesday evening, the Board of Education will be considering the elimination of both the February and April school vacations to make up for school days lost as snow days.
So far this year, schools have been shut down eight days because of weather.
There are unconfirmed reports that so many teachers will not be available to teach at Woodrow Wilson Middle School because of vacation commitments involving deposits and fees paid for vacations, that it would be nearly impossible to keep the school open during February break.
21 comments:
Too bad about your plans, do the right thing and teach our kids. Fire the ones who don't show up just like a private sector job.
Guess those time shares in Aruba are in jeopardy!!
Keep WWMS open. If the teachers cannot be there let them take it as their sick/vacation/unpaid time. Pull building subs from the other schools (there are lots of them at the elementary schools). Working parents have had use sick/vacation/unpaid days to cover the snow days. Now let the teachers do the same. These kids need to be school learning for the CMT's and back to a normal schedule.
These comments are unbelievable. If your boss gave you time off, you paid for your family vacation and then said "sorry, you actually have to work", you'd just go to work and be OK with that? You'd lose money and vacation?
Or some can go away and some have to work? Do they get paid overtime for that? Everyone deserves a break, don't be so cold. I've taken plenty of days off this year for snow/kid issues, but it's not the teacher's fault.
Find more subs. Or pay the willing teachers double.
I too am completely shocked with the first three comments, especially, Anon 10:49. According to the teacher's contract, which can be found at the Middletown Public Schools website (I am not affiliated with the district, I simply did a google search), teachers do not have the option to take vacation days as those in the private sector do. Their vacations are scheduled for them.
As a parent in New England, it is no surprise to me that the schools are going to have sick days, the key is to plan. (Their may be other parents you can split days off with, have a family member watch the kids or even hire a high school student who is also off as a babysitter.)
As evident in all of the articles here on the schools, no solution will make everyone happy, but hopefully they can figure out a solution that will work. We are not the only school district in this situation, so the superintendents should brainstorm some creative ways of handling this mess.
Do parents really think using tons of subs over February vacation is going to create an environment conducive to learning?
The teachers get 3 monthes off I have no sympathy. Kids have to be in school 180 days so the teachers should have to work it. They already got paid for the snow days and should not be paid again and if so then Frechette takes everything else out of slush funds so their pay should come from that too. Everyone else in private sector either did not get paid or lost vacation days when it snowed, unfair but that's life.
My family has vacation plans already. We're going, BUT I plan on going to my children's school to copy CMT prep worksheets for them to do on vacation. I'm making the best of the situation. There is no easy answer and the fact is the district has run out of make up days. Taking Feb and April break is the only answer.
As for the following years...get rid of Feb break all together or make it a 4 day weekend. The district would benefit as a whole with extra days of practice.
If Woodrow Wilson is closed, does that mean the rest of the schools will be closed too? We are cancelling vacations, so we can get the kids out of school the middle of June and not the end of June. In this case, this would mean that Woodrow Wilson would have to remain in school until later in June.
Do you think the children are going to be learning better when a substitute is in the classroom?
How does this make sense?
As of now the district has eight snow days- which puts the last day of school on June 27th. If they were to take away only April break (for which teachers, students, and parents would have time to make arrangements) the district would still need an additional eight snow days before hitting the legal cutoff of June 30 as the last school day.
Think of the low attendance levels of students and teachers in all of the buildings next week; lessons won’t be able to continue with any continuity and instructional time will be lost so that the district can reach the required 180 days.
They shouldn’t panic. Let the school year go late if it means better instruction for students and fair treatment for all teachers.
From my calculations, the district does not have to take away February or April break and will, as of now, be able to make the days up at the end of the school year. Additionally, I do not understand why the district is not doing what it stated on the official 2010-2011 calendar. The calendar states that the district will make up the snow days until June 23rd, then take days off of the April break if needed. The state of Connecticut states districts must have 180 instructional days by June 30. If the school district goes till June 23rd (adding 6 of the 8 days to the end of the year), they could take additional 2 days off the April break giving folks a chance to plan or make up the 2 days on the 24th and 27th of June. Trying to change the calendar at such late notice and putting teachers, schools and the district in such a compromising position just to make up the 8 days so that the last day of school can be June 15th as per the original calendar seems ridiculous. Did the decision makers even think about what would be needed to cover the absences of teachers, paraprofessionals, cafeteria helpers, nurses, secretaries, duty aides and the countless other critical players needed to run a school day before deciding to make this decision? How do they plan on paying for the substitute teachers and other personnel needed? Does the BOE even have the information regarding #'s of substitutes needed and estimated costs to make their vote on Tuesday? From my understanding teachers do not need to let Central office know if they will be teaching next week until Wednesday, February 9th, after the BOE votes. Lastly, the district has the ability to push back the start of the CMTs, the state gives each district a window (I believe 4 weeks) to get the tests completed. The district could push back the start date, giving more time for teachers and teachers to prepare. I hope the BOE asks some of these questions before deciding to open the schools next week.
doesn't WWMS have 2 more days than everybody else cause of the electrical fires?? that's 10 for them and that would be June 29th last day...too risky...have no choice but to take something away.
Well said anon 8:36... I sure hope the BOE takes all of that into consideration. Schools will be complete mayhem-- there will certainly not be enough subs to cover. Way to boost morale.
How fair is this. . .the teachers that go to work get paid. . .the teachers that go on vacation get paid. . .this makes no sense. I think if they have vacation plans for the week, they should be required to take sick days.
I agree with Anon 8:36 pm. The school calendar does say that they will take out some days of April vacation if needed. I think that they should go by what the calendar says. Just think if they take it away we probably will have another snowstorm anyway and will be in the same predictament they are in now, more snowdays. It is true, if all the teachers are going on vacation then the kids will be taught by the subs. I would want my child's teacher to be there to prep them for the CMT, if they were in 3rd grade.
Yes, I think that they should get rid of Feb vacation. The only reason is because we just have a break in December, do we really need Feb too?
People seem to be overlooking the fact that families and teachers who may have booked travel plans will have only 3 business days' notice to cancel, if the BOE decides to keep schools open next week. This is well under the 7 day window that most traveloutlets (airline, etc.) would require for any sort of a refund (if the tickets that were purchased were in fact refunable in the first place).
Middletown's vacation was scheduled for the week of Feb. 14th this year, a full week earlier than most districts in our state, and in other states who have a Feb. break. Because of the early week, families and teachers were able to take advantage of fares that were MUCH lower than in years past, when the break was scheduled for President's week (if you've ever tried to book travel to someplace warmer, you know the inflated fares to which I'm referring!). Consequently, many more teachers and families have scheduled trips this year than would have, had the vacation been scheduled at its usual time- President's week. Why was the vacation planned so early in Feb. in the first place?
In any event, teachers received an e-mail Sunday evening at about 7:00, requesting they contact their prinicipals and the Associate Superintendent by Wed. of this week with any plans. In our "Data Driven" District, the Board of Ed is being asked to make a decision with incomplete data that has been gathered at the last minute.
I suggest that if schools are to remain open next week, that the administration give a nod of support (which they are many times loathe to do) to teachers who are able to work (because they haven't booked non-refundable travel)by having one session days. This would take the burden away from parents whose work schedules have been overtaxed by all of the recent snowdays, minimize class fatigue due to extended time with substitutes, and help get students back into the routine of thinking and learning prior to the omnipresent and looming CMT's, while still meeting the State's 180- day requirement.
Teachers got paid on snow days and didn't have to come in so does that mean they get paid AGAIN days that are made up? They should use April vacation- for all of us working in the real world we had to use vacation days when it was dangerous because of weather out and we couldn't get to work.
I'm a Middletown teacher, so I speak from that point of view. We do not have paid vacations, so taking that kind of time next week is not an option. We do not get paid for snow days - that's really true. We get paid ONLY for the days we actually work. We have NO paid time off of any kind except sick time, which we cannot use for a vacation. Our vacation was planned and posted on the district calendar at least a year ago, and we planned just any other family plans what to do with that time. Many of us invested in travel plans, reservations, tickets and such that cannot be cancelled without financial penalty. It is true that there is no solution to satisfy everyone, but please, to those who coldly state that teachers have too many benefits already and should work through our scheduled vacation, think about what you are saying. If your employer were to do this to you, you would also be quite unhappy.
@ 12:08
It is sad that people in this country don't view teaching as a job that exists in the "real world."
Perhaps that perception is one of the causes of the problems within our schools.
@Anonymous 12:08 Well said . . . I was disturbed at the rude, ignorant and inappropriate comments that some of the readers meade towards educators.
Seriously??? The commments made about teachers are sickening! "They have 3 months off in the summer"??? First of all, there are some teachers that teach summer school or have other jobs during the summer. Oh, and let's not forget, they don't get paid for those 3 months either!
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