Some Wichita parents had to scramble to find child care to cover USD 259’s days off Friday and today — two of a whopping 17 no-school days the district has designated this school year for training, grading, conferences and the like. It’s more than an annoyance for many working parents with inflexible work schedules (and unsympathetic bosses). Still, the community has many programs and day care centers to help parents who plan ahead. And parents shouldn’t expect the school district to stick to a five-day schedule all year –though the district and teachers union have seemed in recent years to add more no-school days without giving enough consideration to the impact on the students’ families.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
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53 Comments
“And parents shouldn’t expect the school district to stick to a five-day schedule all year –”
No kidding? There are only 2 times this school year that more than 3 weeks go by without a day off during a 5-day week.
Potentially the flip side is that if parents can pay attention to the calendar, there could be quite a few family weekends, dental appointments, college visits, and the like that could take place for at least some families on these non-school days, reducing some absenteeism when classes are in session.
The number of “in service days” is totally ridiculous. I support the day at the end of each grading period with no kids as neccessary to do grades and re-group.
However, these “training” days are a joke. 90% of the time these “training days” are totally worthless in my opinion. I would estimate that the vast majority of teachers would rather have an additional instructional day with students rather than sitting through another boring lecture about data, blah, blah, data, bla, blah, blah. There are only so many ways that you can dissect a cat.
The inference that the “teachers union” has anything to do with adding days is also faulty. The calendar is NOT negotiated. The district just says “here it is”. It is true that the end of quarter work days have been increased, but those are needed to get things tied up. It used to be that teachers had a half day at the end of academic quarters to finish grades. The other half of the day was “in service”. It was negotiated a few years back to increase this to an entire day when the amount of work was actually realized. Students weren’t going to be in attendance these days whether teachers had work time or not.
I think I can speak for a majority of teachers when I state that we would much rather be with the kids than having days like today sitting in pointless meetings.
The teachers should “train” during the summer break. They are paid essentially a 12 month salary to work appx 8 months a year. All school districts should require all teachers to do at least 2 weeks of refresher training during the summer recess. That still would give them about 7 weeks of summer paid vacation.
Refresher course? About what?
Misconception: Teachers work nine months and get all summer off with pay.
Reality: Teachers work 10 months (we get out at the end of May and return the first of August), but have our pay split into 12 payments. That’s a big difference.
Kev, did you not read that it is the DISTRICT who decides tha calendar, not the teachers?
Summers are devoted to taking courses for professional development and advancement on the salary schedule. Some teachers work 2nd jobs in the summer to make ends meet as well.
Wish I could just close shop for the day and not upset my customers. We all understand the need to get the busywork done. However, only a government operation would think that simply closing the doors is the solution.
As for training, there is a simple rule. If the ‘need’ came from the HR department you are going to wish for that time back. It’s only a legal CYA or political show.
All in all there are plenty of solutions that do not involve ‘turning away the customer’. Only monopolies can pull these kind of stunts.
In our school, our kids get so many days off it has become absurd. They have the first friday of every month off. Finding care is a huge problem for working parents. Why are these teacher workdays coming in? They didn’t used to have them. Is it because of more continuing education requirements? They used to get subs for that.
You know, we are required to have at least 2 hours of training per month on the ambulance. The higher qualified, the more hours you have to take. We don’t stop running ambulance services because of training. We do individual training for our own on site. And for the big conferences we rotate who goes when. Same with hospitals and other places that need continuing ed. You can’t just close up shop. If they need so many days off, then lets go to a 3 months on and one month off school schedule. The kids could catch up on behind work, the teachers could get their CEU’s and everyone would be well rested. Not that they can’t already do those in the summer.
Just outta curiosity: Where’d y’all park your kids if school began the day after Labor Day and ended the second week in May, instead of beginning the second week in August and ending the second week in June?
What school operates “beginning the second week in August and ending the second week in June”?
The option is to go to year-round school.
Aug. 15, first day of school all students; but I guess they only go to the 22nd of May THIS YEAR.
Unlike the after Labor day to the 15th to 18th of May like when I was a kid.
The concept is still the same: school isn’t in session from 6am to 6pm 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year. If you have kids, you either don’t work or you get a baby-sitter.
IIRC, the last day of school for the last few years has been before Memorial Day. To be honest, by the time I was in high school back in the Stone Age (late ’60s), we started before Labor Day and got out before Memorial Day. But that wasn’t USD259, although it was nearby.
BTW, ghotiphaze, I AM the baby-sitter, and if you think these schedules don’t mess up MY day, think again.
Didn’t these scrambling parents know about the days off prior to now? Were they given a calendar or prior notice?
What is with parents that cannot seem to parent? Raising kids is a responsibility and should be taken seriously. If the parent knows the days off are coming, then plan for it. I know there are unsympathic bosses but if the parent could plan to take a vacation day, then why all the flap?
I agree about those inservice days being a waste of time. It is all about getting together, having those donuts with your coffee and hearing some boring speaker. Are these inservice days required by the No Child Left Behind act? Does anyone know?
No one is more supportive of teachers than me. But all these days off are rediculous. When I was in school (30 years ago) there were 2 inservice days a year.
Now if the motivation was to teach kids that they are entitled to regular time off, I can support that.
indy,
To answer your question, yes, the district releases a calendar…on their website. I can’t swear that calendars weren’t passed out to students, but can’t swear they were, either.
My oldest gdaughter is in full day kindergarten. Next oldest is in afternoon pre-K. Different schools. They live a mile from each other.
Here’s my schedule for this week:Today is a district day off. They are doing individual kindergaten testing this week at the oldest’s school, and only one kindergarten class will attend on their day to test. Her day to attend is Thursday. She’s off the rest of the week.
The pre-k’er goes tomorrow, then the rest of the week is no school because of parent/teacher conferences. Conference dates and times must have been announced verbally to a few, because there was never a letter sent with the students. Sign-up sheets for conference were taped to the door of the school room. It’s nice to have them scheduled, but how does a working parent sign up, when they don’t take their child or pick the child up themselves?
At least I’ll save on gas this week, so there’s a bright spot.
Thanks for the info Rox. I am a grandmother of a 19-month old and have no way of knowing what the school system does nowadays.
Sounds like your pre-k school needs to do a better job of informing everyone of the specifics, huh?
But I still have to wonder why so many inservice days? Does anyone know that part of my question? Does the NCLB require inservice days?
indy,
Most of the info you’ll need can be found at usd259.com. It isn’t the most user friendly, but nearly everything is there if you look real hard. :) Many of the schools have their own websites now, with links back to 259.
I don’t know that the extra days are required by NCLB, but it could be because of NCLB. Teachers have always had a lot of paperwork. Could be that NCLB introduced even more.
It is terribly inconvenient to have to find daycare for children off days, even if you know in advance. Often, daycare won’t SCHEDULE more than a month in advance- and you don’t just find a sitter anymore. There are contracts, and immunization records…and it’s just a pain in the butt.
How many days do you think people get to take off JUST for their kid’s school? Then combine that with dr appts and your own stuff…come on.
I think live-in boarding schools should be mandatory for 2nd through 12th grade.
Sure would solve quite a few problems.
at 7 kids go away to school for 10 months per year.
Brian,
While your idea of boarding schools is very appealing right now (4 kids age 5 and under here right now), if you go that route, why bother having children?
Pmom, with all due respect, I’m not picking a fight with you. Honest.
But….
“How many days do you think people get to take off JUST for their kid’s school? Then combine that with dr appts and your own stuff…come on.
Posted by: political_mom | October 15, 2007 at 11:06 AM
So when you parents take off early, miss days for your kids, need to rush home for a kid emergency…
who picks up the slack? The other workers, and usually, the single people.
With all due respect, when people have kids, they should be willing to accept what comes with kids.
Forget gay marriage, it is SINGLE people and folks without kids who end up sharing the burden with parents.
Even though we may have made a conscious decision NOT to have kids for those very reasons.
You have ‘em? You care for them, pay for them, etc.
I dont mean that to sound so harsh, but really, it is tiring to see parents getting special treatment in some work places.
I will say though, that when I was with AT&T, I got “death in the family leave” when my beloved dog died.
For that, I say THANKS CWA & IBEW!
Let’s clear up some of the haze. Teacher in-service days could be held on Saturdays. Would this require additional remuneration to be paid to teachers? The community should decide.
We could have more-frequent mandatory inservice periods, such as weekly, or semi-weekly, held from 6 AM to 8 AM, or 4 PM to 6 PM.
We could establish better substitute-teacher compensation rules, to encourage more people to substitute-teach.
We could have community volunteers man classrooms. If some elected to teach, great. If some elected to “babysit”, fine. We’d have to perform some kind of background checks, but that’s not hard to do.
The district could remunerate parents for hired-childcare expenses.
The schools should still have class and students on inservice days. Use substitutes, have guest speakers, school presentations, study hall, etc.
Honestly, Wahh. I’m arguing against having to take off work. I don’t want to take off work. I need the money, I need to be dependable. Most places I worked though when I needed off, there was always someone who wanted overtime. Not that the bosses want to PAY for overtime, but that’s how it goes.
If you don’t want to have kids, that’s fine. But the world would pretty much die out rather quickly if we didn’t. Parents do 100x’s more than someone without kids, so I’m really not feeling too sorry.
I dont disagree that parents do a lot. But… what I am saying, is that it is a choice. If folks chose to have kids, that is what they are buying into. If they cant do it all, dont have kids.
If I chose not to have kids, because I dont want to “do” that much, that’s my choice. Why should I be punished with picking up the slack at work because other folks chose to have kids?
You make your choices and pay your own prices, and I will do the same.
And as for the world dying out… Apparantly the urge to breed will NEVER die out. No matter WHAT the consequenses.
My mom was a teacher for over 30 years and she did not get days off to grade papers and keep up on her work. It was part of her everyday job and she took what work she could not get done at school home and did it in the evenings. Parent Teacher conferences were held after school at desiganted times during the school year. They did not hvae “in-service” whatever that means.
Not sure what has changed about education but it does not make sense to have the school year enlongated by all these days off.
Also how are we preparing our kids for college, working through college or (gasp!) 5-day work weeks without end???
Well, Robert, I am told that the college students seldom have classes all five days in a week; there is now “fall break”, something that didn’t exist in my day; the fall semester is now concluded before Christmas, so the break is around a month (assuming there are finals at all); spring break is growing, at least at some colleges and universities to 10 days to two weeks, up from a week; and, the academic year is now shorter by a week per semester at many places.
KFG, I’m just really sick and tired of the ’stay at home’ argument. There is a lot to lose by staying at home. And that is basically what you are advocating. We’re not robots…if you want robots hire robots. Otherwise things don’t always go according to plans and humans will need time off. Even single people get sick.
Robert- way back when, they didn’t require continuing education. CE’s are a good thing and I’d never want to see that go away.
“Robert- way back when, they didn’t require continuing education.”
While it may be true that CE wasn’t a requirement way back when, there were many teachers who returned to school during the summer for more education.
Teachers get sick. They have kids. They have to find day care options, too. On inservice days, their kids are out, too, so they have to deal with child care issues.
It just doesn’t work to always blame the teachers, but it would be nice to find a way to make things less a hassle for everybody.
Indy,
In response to your inquiry about the relationship (if any) of NCLB to increased inservice days, I guess there is a tenuous relationship as reflected in goal #3 in the link:
http://www.bisd.us/nclb/Performance%20Goals.htm
Pmom, I have no idea what the “stay at home” argument is. I was probably advocating for women in the workforce while you were in high school or younger.
My POINT is that we all make choices and pay the price. If you chose kids, that’s the price you pay.
And I dont intend to pay it for you. I made different choices and paid my own prices.
I think live-in boarding schools should be mandatory for 2nd through 12th grade.
Sure would solve quite a few problems.
at 7 kids go away to school for 10 months per year.
Posted by: brian | October 15, 2007 at 11:25 AM
===========================
That was the school plan of the old “communist bloc” countries…
That would explain all the kids roaming the streets today then.
The article breaks it down like this:
“They begin with a contract that requires teachers to work 190 days each school year. Most — 173 — are “student contact days,” said Mary Whiteside, chairwoman of the district’s calendar committee. Here’s how the remaining 17 days break down:
• Eleven inservice days, designed for teachers to attend professional development programs
• Four non-teaching duty days, one after each nine-week grading period, for teachers to complete grading and file report cards
• And two conference release days — one in the fall, one in spring — to compensate teachers for long days spent in parent-teacher conferences”
91 percent of the days are for “student contact days?” I wonder why they don’t call those “teaching days?”
Other statistics means that out of a normal 365 calendar year, teachers are on the job for 52 percent of calendar time.
The bottom line would be a different number, if weekends are excluded and National Holidays included.
It appears with the statistics on the number of Wichita Schools got with their ratings, the teaching quality is doing fairly well under the NCLB. But, let us not rest on our laurels.
Kansas, before going too far, it would be advisable to await the AYP statistics for the year (to determine success or lack thereof under NCLB for USD 259). I believe these will be available by December. While 31 of the District Schools received commendations for “Standard of Excellence” in one or more assessed areas, it is AYP where the NCLB “rubber meets the road”.
True Vaughn Tolle,
However, it is a benefit to recognize the successes and it is noteworthy in that article about the 31 District schools that were commended, that it was higher than any of the past years.
My POINT is that we all make choices and pay the price. If you chose kids, that’s the price you pay.
And I dont intend to pay it for you. I made different choices and paid my own prices.
Not all people choose to be single parents kfg. I didn’t. It is my reality though and my kid comes before anything else.
Your stance here is a little surprising.
I’m not talking just about single parents. But when you have kids, as you know, the possibility always exists that you will be single by death or divorce.
As a single (not by choice) and childless (by choice) person, I just get tired of being on the paying end of the stick for those who chose to have children.
And I say I’m single not by choice, but because I’m denied civil marriage recognition by the government. If it were my choice, we’d be married.
Think about it JR. You are single. How many times and how many ways do single people get screwed?
Think about it JR. You are single. How many times and how many ways do single people get screwed?
Posted by: ksfarmgrrl | October 15, 2007 at 02:16 PM
A lot KFG, a lot. :(
My wife teaches at USD259 and I understand both sides to the argument of all the days off. I decided to work 3rd shift to be home for the kids. It’d be nice to have a better job and a nicer schedule, but the kids come first. When you consider the cost of day-care/babysitting/taking off work, the pay isn’t that much different.
As an aside: those people’s kids that you’re paying for now will be paying your social security (that you’ll probably never see anyway the way things are going).
KFG, ever heard of temps? per diem employees? That’s what they’re for.
People who are hired specifically for times when they need to be called in on short notice as fill-ins. Older retired people with grown kids love this kind of work.
And for the record, I worked overtime more often for single people who were out too late partying than I did for parents who needed to stay home with their kids. The ones with kids were far more responsible.
agree about the partying employees, polimom.
Does anyone know of the programs Rhonda mentions here? What about for the half-days when kids are out early? Any programs out there for them?
As a single (not by choice) and childless (by choice) person, I just get tired of being on the paying end of the stick for those who chose to have children.
Posted by: ksfarmgrrl | October 15, 2007 at 02:16 PM
How are YOU paying for those who choose to have children?
Uh, Cheryl? Ever heard of taxes and school bonds? Paid by property owners.
Libs are all for more taxes and more Socialism!
You call it caring and sharing.
It’s not your money anyway.
I’d like to hear from ksfarmgirl, thanks Rox.
I know property taxes pay for schools, along with Federal money.
But who paid for ksfarmgirl’s education?
By paying taxes now, she’s just paying back what was paid for her by someone else.
“”"Reality: Teachers work 10 months (we get out at the end of May and return the first of August), but have our pay split into 12 payments. That’s a big difference.”"”"
Maybe but you also get off a 2 weeks at Christmas, a week for spring break as well as little days like MLK Day, Columbus Day, Yom Kipper (some states), Pulaski Day, Confederate Day, Presidents Day.
If your kids are so young that they need to be watched then you don’t need 2 people in the house working full time.
School should end the Friday before Memorial Day and start the Monday following Labour Day. And all the other time off during the year should be scrapped including 2 weeks at Christmas and a week for spring break. They should get only Thanksgiving Day and the Friday following, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and New Years Eve and New Years Day. All other days school should be in session.
Kev,
I agree and disagree with you. I think children need breaks from their routines. A week off at Christmas is probably good to unwind. Three months in late spring to late summer is way too long, because this promotes forgetfulness, requiring remedial instruction in the first several weeks of fall quarter. Smart and affluent parents are sending their kids to high-priced acceleration-focused summer educational programs.
What these parents realize is, “We don’t want our kids to have 3 months of ‘down time’. Six weeks of vacation is enough. Four weeks of vacation is enough.”
This is a good take-home lesson for everybody.