Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Will there be any school?

From mid-December to mid-January, holidays and snow caused Tacoma students to have just 11 days of school out of 35 calendars days.  Now comes the news that the district is going to seek an additional waiver for the 3 snow days in mid-January.


I think this line--"Tacoma canceled three school days during the storm and backloaded the makeup days at the end of the school year, where they could be canceled if a waiver is granted"--means that Tacoma would simply not make up those 3 days and would retain their snow makeup days as a day off.  In other words, they would not use the available makeup days to make up days cancelled for snow.


That would mean that students would now have only 173 days, as the district has already gotten four days waived.  I'm sure there's some sort of reasoning that makes sense for the district or the leadership, but I don't know how it makes sense for students.  I do know it sends a strange message about the (un)importance of school.  


I've asked the district spokesman if they plan to post an explanation of this on the district web site.  No response yet.



Read more here: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2012/01/30/2004684/schools-may-avoid-makeup-days.html#storylink=cpy