2 days off just added to the feb. calendar. yes, for this year. comments/reaction?

Its for the children remember .

They were added so teachers didn't have to work on professional development during nights/weekends.

Curious, anyone know if teachers do professional development during the summer?

Also, are teachers paid only during the school year, or is their salary spread around the calendar year?

Can't tell you that all the teachers do professional development in the summer but I do and most of the teachers I work with do as well. Also, my pay is distributed in 24 pay periods but I get one big check in mid-June that covers the last paycheck for June, both paychecks for July, and both paychecks for August. Each district does it based on their contract. If you want to weed through the D41 contract, you can find out what they do.

Which two days? If they make for a nice long weekend, I'm mad because I've already booked my $$$$$$ Spring Break week vacation so my precious darling wouldn't have to miss any school.

If not then . . . whatever. I've somehow got to sqeeze a bunch of continuing ed in between now and June so I can sympathize.

The 2 additional days off from school are Feb. 26 and April 30.
The addition of Feb. 26 being a day off from school now makes for a 4 day weekend. No School Thursday Feb. 26 and Friday Feb. 27. I hear a plane calling the kids and I to FL for a long weekend? Does anybody else hear that?, although I will have 2 upset boys because they will have to miss their baksetball game.
Now for the 2nd addition of Thursday, April 30, that will also be a 4 day weekend because Friday, May 1 is an Institute Day. Where should we go that weekend?
I feel for the dual income families that will need to come up with a plan for these 2 days.

while d41 may indeed have dual income families who have to come up with alternatives i'm personnally more concerned with the lower income (perhaps single) parent (who does indeed send kids to 41) and now is faced with ANOTHER day to deal with child care. and in this economy taking a day off for the whims of d41 is risking your job. adding days off like this IN THE MIDDLE OF THE YEAR is asking for latch-key situations...not good for younger students and downright dangerous for 6th, 7th and 8th grade.

Does anyone other than a school district employee see the value in institute days, early dismissals, and the like?

For that matter - the majority of school employees I've spoken with consider them a complete waste of time...

I don't think the days off will be that painful. As a member of a two parent working household, our child care is available M-F. If our daughter's in school, she's in school. If she's off, she's off.

Researching for next year, I looked into D41 before and after care. If the kids have a day off school, you just drop them at the Y for the day instead of at school. It's not any more money. For 1/2 days, the Y comes and gets them at early dismissal and you pick them up at the Y.

I would think that most parents' child care arrangements are similar, but I could be wrong.

I agree with you, Dinsdale. It seems that the disruption in the learning outweighs whatever benefit is supposed to be derived by SIP and institute days.

A quick look at the D41 calendar for the rest of the year indicates that the longest that the kids go to school without some disruption is only one period of three weeks from January 26 through February 13 -- that's it. The district needs to re-examine this issue and do so in a way that will actually help the learning.

Does anyone else remember the disaster from the year when the district decided to listen to a few PTA council members who thought it would be swell to have the grade school and high school on similar schedules? That was the year the district had "late arrival" days on SIP days. Thankfully, that experiment was reversed the next year. My point is that the calendar needs to be planned to maximize the learning opportunities for the kids.

Some of these institute days and time for collaboration are very worthwhile. I'll leave it at that.

"Leaving it at that", speaks volumes, Amy.

quote:

Originally posted by Amy:
Some of these institute days and time for collaboration are very worthwhile. I'll leave it at that.

I didn't say no school employee had ever expressed such an opinion to me, Amy.

Your brief post certainly does not provide any reason to change my statement that I have never heard any non-school employee express a desire or appreciation for these institute days, late arrivals, etc.

And if the goal is for "collaboration" to bear any fruit perceptible to the public, well, based on my experiences with the GE schools we may well need 5 or 10 times as many institute days!