Johnston Co. Schools Closed Feb 2, 2010

I'm just thinking they could have avoided a little angst in scheduling it a couple weeks in advance. I'd be interested to know what the big rush in doing it THIS Saturday is. Mind you, once again, I do NOT have an issue with them having to go on a Saturday, it's just very short notice when folks have lives outside of what goes on at JoCo schools M-F.

DS will be going, but I really doubt they will accomplish much between high absenteeism and the kids not being into it. Personally, I think they are just doing it to get that day in there.

 

With all the whining on this thread, I certainly understand why the students grow up and expect their employers to kowtow to their every need. Life throws you some curve balls now and then and maybe instead of whining and complaining we would help our kids by showing them how to adjust to things sometimes.

 

Well, I am impressed. Dr. Croom has already responded to my email. While I am still not happy about the Saturday makeup, and my daughter will not be able to attend due to a work committment, I now understand the reason behind the hurry. Per Dr. Croom, "You are correct that Saturdays are not listed on the approved calendar for inclement weather makeup days. The law does allow school districts to attend school on Saturday as long as students do not attend more than five days in one week. Ideally, it would have been wise to continue with the makeup days as listed on the calendar. But, if we miss more days due to inclement weather then we could be in jeopardy of not meeting the mandates set forth in the calendar law. I chose to recommend this for several reasons. First, it is very early in the winter and it is likely that we could have more inclement weather (including this week). Second, I could not risk adding days at the end of the year due to the limited time high school teachers have getting senior information complete before graduation. Third, it is always unpopular to take spring break days especially if the option of using a Saturday had not been utilized. Fourth, adding days at the end of the year is not an option as school must be completed by a certain date. Most systems have additional days to use in the winter. Our system uses a couple of those days for Mule Days and to extend the Christmas break. The only other Saturday that I could have used was the Saturday of Memorial Day week. That, too, would have not been popular." Thus, another Saturday was not an option. I just wanted to be fair and give credit to Dr. Croom for his prompt response. We don't have to agree with his decision but it helped me to understand it.

 

Well...........there ya go. Perhaps next time he will include a bit of that explanation in his automated message. I bet he is swamped with emails. :lol:

 

Is it still necessary to close the whole county for Mule Days?

 

You better zip up your flame suit!! :jester: (although I happen to agree with you)

 

You are right....by the way my son's b-day party is this Saturday and he will be there....question is will his friends?

 

That would certainly apply in a lot of cases.....but not this one.

 

Also impressed by Mr. Croom's quick response to my email.

 

This is NC not NY.....how many Saturdays in April and May are we guaranteed to avoid snow days? This Croom character is an idiot. It snows once or twice a year here.

 

I thought about that! My daughter's b-day party is Saturday, Feb 20th. She's inviting everyone in her class. If we had to use that Saturday as a makeup day, I don't know what we'd do. Because of where she wants her party, we had to book that date in advance and there were no other Saturdays near her birthday available there.

 

Yes...that was requested years ago by the Highway Patrol because of traffic problems in Benson. Hard to close part of school system without closing the county.

 

How many days has the school system lost this year?

 

My daughters party is going to be Feb. 20th also. Not sure if we could get another Sat. if they decided to schedule school that day or not. I guess I need to call the place and ask them about that. Especially with the threat of more snow this Fri. maybe they won't even go on Sat. I just wish the snow would go away.

 

A few of Croom's points made sense and were things I had not considered, and I am glad they didn't take days away from spring break, but I still have a major problem with the short notice, scheduling on a Saturday (for all of the reasons given by those here such as sporting events, birthday parties, etc.), and frankly for having to make up anything at all for just two missed days.

When I was a kid we had to miss a week of school for snow before we had to make anything up. There were designated "make up" days, but there were enough days built into the calendar that we did not even have to use any of those until we had missed several days. Back then we only had a handful of teacher work days all year though. Yeah, that's the way it was back in the stone ages.

 

That would be fine, except they are allowed 4 absences per quarter. The quarter ends late March and it is the middle of "get sick" season. Mine will be there Saturday. Better to go on a short Saturday than to risk the 69 if they get sick later, which they will. It is inevitable. I hope all those who skip this Saturday will not come when they are sick later because they have missed too many days...

The timing is always bad and everyone has to make their own decisions. I just wish the calendar committee could find a way to build in a workday or two in the third quarter. That would alleviate a lot of these kinds of issues.

 

I remember those days. We went to school on Saturdays now and then, but if we missed too many days, they just forgave them...no make-ups at all. Of course, that was before EOG's! Lots of things were better then, but that is another thread altogether, huh??:mrgreen:

 

We went twice on Saturday when I was in high school. We had already used all of our snow days, and there were no other options. IIRC we started on time but they let us out around 1:00.

 

I remember going to school one time on Saturday and that was for a half day. I was in 7th grade and it was only after we missed an entire week of school.

 

I just looked at WRAL weather page.....may have some wintry stuff Saturday too.........