Children are in school for approximately 10 months of the year. In our case from the second week in September until the 4th week of June.
Of those 180 days, 40 of them are half days.
Above and beyond those 180 days, and not including weekends, there are 26 "no school" days for things such as LID #2 (whatever that is), State Inservice Days, various holidays (I still don't agree about several of them),
Mid Winter Break (two days on either side of a weekend giving a 4 day weekend), Spring Break and the ever popular 2+ weeks for Winter Break. Oh, I forgot to mention, the Friday before Memorial Day is also a no school day for no apparent reason other than to give everyone a 4 day weekend.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not begrudging anyone a well deserved holiday. But do we really need the kids to have 40 half days during the school year. As a note, all but a few of these are EVERY Wednesday during the year.
I’m not sure why all the schools only have a half day on Wednesdays, but they do. I do want to say this, every Wednesday there are dozens of after school clubs and activities for the kids to be involved in. The school district has a very strong activities program.
I think the complaint I have is how long the year drags out. I hate to put myself into the category of old folks who reminisce about the Good Old Days but I clearly remember starting school the first Tuesday after Labor Day, and being out of school the first or second week in June. We had no Mid Winter Break, and while it may have been as long, I certainly don’t remember having 2+ weeks off for Christmas. I remember taking off the Friday before December 25 and going back almost immediately after January 1.
OK, I’ll quit bitching about it now and go back to my regularly scheduled rants about how messy the kids rooms are…