Tell me what you hate about the school calendar in your district

[hedgehog]

Ours has too many odd days off all year, then runs in to the third week of June. (June 23 is usually the last day.) The worst part is the mid-February Winter Break. It is designed to let the wealthier families take the kids to Myrtle Beach for a week without missing classes. Meanwhile, the other half of the kids are stuck at home. The weather is usually cold and wet so the kids can't even play outside. (icy rain on muddy snow. I'd rather see the kids get out on Memorial Day. The June weather here is glorious and the kids should be outside, not stuck in a classroom.

[Midlodemocrat]

1. Only one break in the spring, usually around Easter.

I would LOVE a February break to go somewhere warm.

[RebelOne]

2. I hate that school has reopened for 7 counties in the Atlanta area,

which means that rush-hour traffic is going to be hell again.

[hedgehog]

4. What's with starting up in mid-August?

The only thing I can figure out is that it lets the kids out early in the summer before the really hot weather sets in.

[mtnester]

15. Ah, remember when school started the Tuesday after Labor Day?

and religiously ended around June 3?

Spring break? What the hell was that?

[Arugula Latte]

3. We have one of the shortest school years in the country.

Also, there are many random teacher service days, with several scattered over November for some reason. I understand that teachers need time for training, etc., but they seem to choose the days in a very inconvenient manner.

[hedgehog]

5. I was able to stay home until my kids were old enough to watch

themselves. I always wonder what parents do for day-care when there is a scattering of random days off throughout the school year. I bet a lot of kids between 5 and 12 are spending school holidays home alone behind locked doors. What else can the parents do?

[Arugula Latte]

6. I know. It's very tricky.

My husband and I are lucky because we both work primarily at home. I don't know how other people do it without big family support in their area.

[malta blue]

12. Lucky you...

Little MB's dad and I have to alternate taking the time off since none of the grandparents live in the vicinty. It means using most of my vacation time to stay home with the little for one day here, another there.

[femmocrat]

11. In our district, the teachers have nothing to do with the calendar.

It is set by the School Board. Believe me, most teachers (here, at least) hate all those inservice days, too. I would much rather be in school and get the days in, so we could get out before the middle of June.

[Arugula Latte]

13. No, I know. I didn't mean to imply that the teachers picked the days.

By "they" I meant the district administration.

[Sequoia]

7. Same here.....ski week in mid-February.

I'd rather them get out of school by Memorial Day not the first day of summer for crying out loud. In mid-Fed it's cold, dark and raining here too.

[malta blue]

8. I hate the fact that

my kid has EVERY friday off in the month of November...
:shrug:

and I can't seem to figure out why it has to be EVERY friday.

Geez, you know some of parents have to work, and I can't leave a 7 year old home alone.

Hi hedgehog!
:hi:

[tinfoil tiaras]

9. We're starting earlier and earlier

Like last year, we started like August 25 (which is considered late in these parts), but this year we start this thursday, the 17. We're probably gonna start like the 11th next year and the next year we're gonna start like the 4th or something. Day-umm. And we hardly get any days off too... :(

[femmocrat]

10. Same complaint that you have...

Our district has 10 inservice days a year.... that adds two full weeks to the school year! We don't get a winter break, but we do get a long Easter break if we don't use our snow days. The days I object to most though are 2 full days off for the School Picnic (day of, and day after!) and the Monday after Thanksgiving for the first day of deer season! I am NOT kidding!

[RedCloud]

14. No exciting models for pin ups...

Always the same Partly Trained Apes volunteering.

[bleedingheart]

16. well for one...I think school should start after labor day...

because the labor day holiday messes with the beginning of school calendar.

I think the mess of inservice days that are embedded in the school calendar to "cushion it for snow days" is absurd....

as for a big holiday in Feb...we don't have that...our kids are out in late May or June 1.

[hedgehog]

17. Can I throw in another rant about teachers giving homework

over vacation or the holidays? Who wants to spend Christmas with a 10 page paper hanging over their head?

[Rosie1223]

18. School starts on Friday

and gets out 2 hours early. So basically they are attending for a 1/2 day on Friday. What kind of fucked up logic is that??

[MiniMandaRuth]

19. The fact that last year we had school on NEW YEARS DAY.

x( Half the students didn't show up, and I had gone to bed at four in the morning, waking up at six-thirty the next. My science teacher was hung-over, our math teacher was missing in action (He had driven half-way to school and had given up and returned home.). Our language arts teacher slept through our lessons. Our social studies teacher was the only one alert enough to actually teach.

THAT was a fun day.