Quick question maybe someone has an answer, the Thursday prior to Labor Day was an early release day.

Why was it held on Thursday instead of Friday, which would have been the day before a three day weekend. Allowing families a chance to get going hours earlier n the holiday weekend.

Knee, when was the last time the school board made a decision that made sense?

replies to #2 & #3
That scheduling did make sense. If the early release day had been Friday, many students would not have been in school at all that day. Many parents would have left for their long weekends on Thursday after school or on Friday morning thinking that the kids are okay missing just a half-day. Then they would have been mad when the school would not excuse the absence.

the_U.

let's go with your premise. From what I was told the schools were empty on Friday, which was a full day.

If they skip Friday and it is a half day they miss a half day. If friday i a half day will twice as many students take the day off, nope. So your logic doesn't hold water.

If this was the theory then having a full day off in october on a Friday would be bad idea as everyone would take Thursday off too and have a longer weekend. So put that daay off on a Thursday too.

When making decisions on schedles it would be a good idea to make decisions that make sense not decisions based on believing that parents will allow their kids to skip school.

Maybe they blindfold someone, spin them around three times, give them a dart and whatever day of the week they hit, that is the day they will either be off or have half.

Why does the school board even bother putting out a calendar? Every single time there is a hurricane they do not stick to their original game plan. They have hurrricane days on the schedule already in place. I wish they would just stick to what they already agreed on!

Why would the school board use the pre-planned hurricane days already built in in June?

When they can innconvience all the teachers (take away their planning day for the report cards), and the students(skip around their already alternating schedules).

Why let a little thing like prior planning or common sense get in the way?

Not following their own rules is how they keep getting into all these self made catastrophes.

Situation Normal All "Fouled" Up.

I have had kids in the Collier County School system for 12 years. They have always made the early release days on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday or a random day off in the middle of the week, which I think is stupid.

Make up day october thats good they better be planning another one because of ike coming to town.

My kid just entered the school system this year and their scheduling makes absolutely no sense. There are way too many planning days (at least one each month) and they never plan the half-days or full-days out around a weekend. The School Board is making these scheduling decisions without even thinking about the students or parents, most of whom both work.

The truth is if they made the "half day" on a Friday all the teachers would put in for a personal day.

The "half-day" counts as a full day according to the state b/c of the actual number of hours the kids are at school.

I happily pulled my kids out of school Friday for a long weekend, b/c I don't think they should have even started until after labor day and they did not miss a thing!

why dont they wait till after hurricane season than they know how many days they have to make up!

The real issue is that a day missed BEFORE F-CAT is soooo horrific!!! The last time they tried to add a hurricane day AFTER F-CAT the teachers has a hissy fit because they claim to have needed that day for FCAT prep - go figure.

These "teacher planning days" still amaze me. I never heard of such a thing until I moved here.

Any why don't they wait to start school until after Labor Day? You barely get started and already there's a holiday.

Wrong, collier34, the teachers don't have the hissy fit, it's the micromanaging bureaucracy that has the hisey fit. OMG, take a day away before FCAT???? OMG, we might miss some benchmarks and I will not be thought of as the JC of Collier County Schools. OMG, OMG, the pressure, the work load, AAgghhh!

Idiots.

post #5=kneejerk

Did you go to school? Because your sentences don't make sense and you can't spell very well either!!!! But people are right, if they would have made Friday the half day, then parents would have left for the long weekend after school on Thursday.

cheetah knock off knocking PEPUL 4 spellling HEAR.

It's a freakin opinion PEPUL.

Doesn't matter how it's spelled, the make-up day has to happen....at least it isn't over the holidays where PEPUL have vacations planned.

eye kin spill phine eye giust cain't tipe

This is one teacher who is NOT happy about 10/17 being the make up day. That planning day is used for preparing report cards and - I know this will amaze some of you - planning. No one I know at the elem. level voted to take that day.

First - the district can ask that the first day be forgiven and it could just go away. First day of school = lots of rules and routines, not a lot of academics. Why not just write it off?

Second - why even put out a calendar that has make up days at the end of the year if you are just going to go ahead and overide them anyway?

I will be writing the board members to urge them to stick to the calendar they already agreed on.

#11 - betcha that if (when) we need to make up a day for Ike it will be the day before Thanksgiving. That was on the chopping block with 10/17 for the Fay one.

teach.. betcha my kids wont be there!!!

I hear you seventy_one, trust me. Somehow I think if we go down that road, all of a sudden the June make up days won't look so bad!

teacherkids..I'm sorry about the planning day nixing thing.

But they could help teachers in the classroom by having a secretary type up the report cards for teachers...most of the BIG execs have a secretary.

WHY NOT have a person type in your grades? Of course the ultimate grade point average would be from the teacher, but the grades can be typed in to save time.

They have secretaries in these front offices typing everything else.

WHY NOT REPORT CARDS?

LET TEACHERS TEACH in CCPS.

LOL, Beetle! I love the thought. Yes, let someone else fiddle with 80+ drop down menues and typing rote comments per district policy on each of 20 or so cards. I'll gladly hand over that responsibility. Of course they'd probably make twice what I do now...

oh well, c'est la vie!

Florida Boy, Take a look at the school calendar, there are not too many teaching planning days each month. There are only four teacher planning days, one at the end of each quarter. There is one early release day each month, but teachers are not planning on those days, they are sitting at meetings(usually a waste of their time), when they would rather be in the classroom teaching the children. You can thank the powers above for those days.

If they use the day before Thanksgiving as a makeup day the line for personal days will wind around each school building. Much better to stick to the original plan of adding a couple of days at the end if needed.

no mag156....not the easy way to go when teachers would like a summer vacation....which they rightfully deserve after a long year.
But why not give teachers a chance to pass their grading system on to a secretary?
For the most part, a student's G.P.A is calculated by the teacher.
Pass this info to a secretary to type in.
THIS planning day is gone....so give it to another person to type in...

WHY NOT?

What I don't understand is what exactly working parents are supposed to do with their kids on all those random 1/2 days and once a month student day off/teacher planning days? Kids get herded (like animals) in those afterschool programs. It's a wild mess with minimal supervision and lots of bullying. Why not offer an alternative/semi-educational option for the kids?

Wow, I guess I am ignorant.
"Typing" in grades?
I've never even used a typewriter as a teacher.
Teachers calculate students' G.P.A.'s?
Of course, I teach high school, but is this really what goes on at the elementary and middle schools?

Good - we use the same gradebook as everyone else. We input the individual grades and the program calculates the end grade. That's easy enough. But with 5 different subjects, an average of 20 students and between 2-8 drop down menues per subject, not to mention general behavior and study skills, it's not a walk in the park. The comment section is the worst since you can only type about 50 characters into one box before you have to tab to the next. Not user friendly at all. AND - that's if the program is running smoothly, and as we all know with technology in this county - that's not always the case. So, if I don't have any last papers to enter, the entire process usually takes a minimum of 2-3 hours.

#31 - Beetle, I respectfully disagree about the days at the end of the year. Yes, teachers deserve the vacation but if the calendar is set and the process is stuck to, then you plan around those two days. Two days aren't going to kill anyone to work around. And, imo, easier to deal with than changing the calendar once the year starts.

In high school, we have 6 different classes with an average of at least 25 students each. I generally have about 30 grades per class each quarter. At report card time, we just choose from the drop-down comments, and don't have to enter individual ones. I enter individual comments constantly throughout the year.
At least we only have to report grades 8 times per year.

The union started this huricane day change with a VOTE among teacher/members. It was never brought before the union representative council for a motion or vote. I resent that stupid decision. The vote was split about 640 to 643 on an online survey. (You could vote more than once.) This is not even valid, and probably deserving of a wasteful debate...not the make-up day, but the procedure. Make a %(*&^ decision and stick with it.

Making up hurricane days - is only a way to keep the assigned amount of days per year a child is regulated to be in school. The school system works too hard at trying to over-ride the parents and parent's decisions. Adding days to the end of the semester or year is not going to benefit the kids in learning because they don't do anything those days anyway but play, watch movies, etc. It's merely passing time. The school board is stepping over it's boundaries these days in trying to take over from the parents in many, many areas. Every year I get more and more frustrated with the school board and it's disappointing. I CAN NOT STAND THE F-CAT and neither can a great deal of the teachers - so why do we still have it? Almost the whole years is spent teaching to the F-Cat test and with so much pressure placed on the kids to learn it "just right" and then the teachers to recieve good grades for their school so that they can get bonus in their paychecks or for the school. Just get back to teaching. Allowing the teachers to actually teach in a way the kids can learn and remember what they learn! Teach morals and respect and stop being so political and let the kids actually enjoy going to school instead of being afraid - and then we will see the percentages rise in graduations. I find that more and more teachers do not "enjoy" their work and really don't want to be there and this shows to the chldren. More and more incidents of teachers yelling, teachers being hateful and disrespectful. If you act it, don't expect it! Kids are afraid and uninterested and sickened at the thought of going to school and it's very hard to learn under these situations. It's a growing concern. I respect most teachers - know quite a few - in most cases, they love their job. But,the tide is turning and it's not all their fault but what they have to deal with and the pressure placed on them. It starts at the top and filteres to the children who pay the price. It's no wonder home schooling is such a fast growing prospect.

#31: I don't know if you are a teacher, but when I enter grades the program calculates the final result. The issue with a secretary entering is that while it only takes me a few moments to enter a grade , which I do on a WEEKLY basis, I then have to enter comments. That is what takes a lot of time, and I don't know of a way that a secretary could do that - it's quicker to do it myself than to actually have to tell anyone which three or four comments to enter for each child. Of course, I could say "just enter comments 2, 5, and 6 for everyone, but then what is the point of a comment if it's not individualized?! All I know is that I need my Wednesday before Thanksgiving to prepare for my family's get together, and Oct. 17th for my report cards. One or two days at year's end is preferable to me personally. Anyway teachers that are CCEA members had a vote, and the 17th is how they voted, so I will deal with it. But if they take the Wed. before Thanksgiving - personal or sick day for me!!

sharon,
Yes union procedures are a joke! Have been for years! Even on the last contract vote, they let people vote multiple times. Stacking the vote? SOP for the CCEA.
blessusall,
Gollee, where do I start with your comment?
"Teach morals and respect..." Sounds like the parents' job.
"...they don't do anything those days anyway but play, watch movies, etc. It's merely passing time."
Not in MY classroom! Remarks like this make my blood boil! This is like Martha Hayes saying teachers don't do anything for the last 30 minutes of the block. I guess it might be true in some classrooms, but please don't make blanket statements like that. If this IS happening, then point out the specifics and let's correct it!
If we want to improve the education of our kids, we should work together.

Bottom line is teachers get more paid days off than bankers! Now, year-round classes would solve everything!

OMG! Teachers having to make comments about their students! Having to deal with drop down click and add buttons! Give me a BREAK!!
I remember hand writing grades, hand writing comments, and figuring GPA with a calculator. Then when it went computerized, we still had to imput all the data, and type out personal comments on all of our children.

My children's grade cards usually have either blank comments, or the courtesy numbers that generally mean, Your kid did not annoy me or misbehave.

Before you all come and attack me as anti-teacher: I WAS a teacher for 20 years. I am a HUGE supporter of quality educators. I AM just really tired of all the fussing! Mainly because, as my children will attest too, the b@#$ing does not get left at the classroom door, and is reflected in the education of the students and the environment in which that teaching is occurring.

And while we had a few professional development half days or full days here and there in our calendar, we NEVER had an almost monthly one, like they do here.

#34 I'll take the technology in Collier County any day over what we have in Lee. I swear, sometimes I feel like I am connected to the internet through dial-up.

As for hurricane make-up days...I like the days to be scheduled in, and then stick to the schedule. That way, as soon as a day is needed, I know exactly which one will be the make-up day.

PAID days off? You gotta be kidding me!
Year-round school? Sure! Salary will be commensurate, right?

Making an early release day into a full day wouldn't accomplish anything.
They already count as full days as far as the State is concerned.

#42 - The computer program is definitely preferable to the old calculator and pen method. The point I am trying to make is that it does take a long time to get these things done, even with technology. Planning days ARE used for good purpose, like report cards and long term planning. Early release days are required by the district for work on school improvement plans and committees. I dislike them as a parent and as a teacher but they are mandated.

Early release days ... who is mandating them? We don't have them in Lee.

teachurkids I totally agree with the problem with half-days....especially for people who work....it doesn't work at all for families who work, and I recall many days when kids were running around the office I was at because they had nowhere else to go.

With global warming, and more storms on the way, there should be an extra few days added on SOMEWHERE...but where? Or even start the school year later??? I dunno...it gives time for the hurricanes to come and go?? But hurricane season goes well into November...so now I am talking in circles like Kerry.

Round and round and round we go!

When these hurricanes stop, nobody knows.

#43 - How unfortunate for you and your kids that they got stuck with every poor teacher in CCPS. If your 20 years were spent here, then you should have done what the rest of us did and picked their teachers. That perk was worth my low salary and poor benefits. I had 4 kids go thru 12 years here. They loved it, all four were happy all 12 years, their teachers loved them, they learned well, they got into great colleges, they all have good, lucrative jobs, and they are most importantly happy people! It's not all doom and gloom at CCPS!!