Wednesday, June 2, 2004
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Wednesday, June 2, 2004 |
Why is BoE pushing more interruptions of school?At its next meeting, the Fayette County Board of Education will vote on a new week long break during the month of October. As a Fayette County parent of two teens, I can hardly believe that in the process of establishing the 2005-2006 school year calendar the focus of our county curriculum director is “to make it easy during these long breaks for families to travel during the year” as quoted in the May 27 issue of Fayette Neighbor. TRAVEL?! With gas prices edging past $2, companies downsizing and outsourcing, and Delta, one of our county’s largest employers on the brink of bankruptcy, with many of its employees fearing for the future of their jobs, who can afford to travel at free will, just because the children are off from school? There are many families in Fayette County in which both parents work and are allotted a set time for vacation (two weeks, perhaps) and not able to take additional vacation just because their children are now off from school. Families that can take off additional time may not be economically able to vacation at will. Can the Fayette County Board of Education please provide the following answers: • What were the actual number of respondents to the [system’s online] survey? • What percentage of our total school families does this represent? • What percentage of respondents were interested in each of the three options available? By knowing the facts, we, as a community, would be able to better determine if in fact this is a true representation of the majority of the school family population or if it is a representation of the small sampling of our community that completed the survey online. I did complete the survey and opposed the October break for several reasons: • Stopping and restarting schools after a break away takes at least a couple of days for all students to refocus and get back in the groove of learning. These backward steps slow the momentum of the total material learned and causes a “rush” at the end of the year to get it all in before exams. (This was experienced this year in several classes by both of my teenage children and all we did was extend the Thanksgiving break a full week!) • Utility expenses for the FCBOE passed on to the taxpayer will be higher as the weather gets warmer in June. • Ending in June overlaps college courses offered for summer semester. Our county seniors planning on participating in these courses will be affected. • When the weather is hot it’s only natural for children to struggle to maintain academic focus as the excitement for summer vacation looms near. I welcome the FCBOE to share the positive aspects of offering breaks each month during the school fall semester prior to the FCBOE meeting on June 21. I encourage our county teachers to add their voice and the reasons behind their school calendar preference. I am receptive to making positive changes for the benefit of our Fayette County academic standing, not calendar changes for the time allotted for travel. Name withheld |
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