Analyzing the calendar mess

One thing's for sure...you've got to admit that this week's public calendar squabble between your Board of Education and DPI became very public and very ugly. GCS may have had the last word, but no one walked away with a true victory here.

If anything, this shows a strong need for changes...and fast. If I were on the board, I would be calling for a special called meeting to discuss this subject and reopen the calendar issue. Because something clearly didn't work right.

The Rhino Times has a very nice rollup on this week's events leading up to yesterday, when DPI decided to back off and let GCS add those makeup school days at the end of the year.

I particularly am fond of this snippet:

School board Chairman Alan Duncan, as he has for several years, voted against this year's calendar, saying it would leave Guilford County Schools with no maneuvering room if it did snow. He was right.

"The reason I've done it is exactly because of this," Duncan said. "We shouldn't be at all surprised that we are exactly here."

"Here" is in a pickle – playing chicken with the state, its main source of funding, with no option but to enrage parents by, one way or another, scheduling school on days for which families already have vacation or travel plans.

Playing chicken with the state clearly did not go over well with the citizens of Guilford County, as evidenced in some of these letters to the editor in today's N&R:

Congratulations to the Guilford County school board. What a wonderful example you are making to your students, staff and the community at large. We don’t like the state rules; therefore, we will ignore them. The date of June 10 for the last day of school was set in state law by the Legislature. Saying the law does not apply to us is like telling the highway patrolman, “Sure I was doing 80 in a 65, but so were others; therefore, it’s OK.”
Shame, shame, shame.

Richard Schroer
Oak Ridge

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This from a middle school teacher:

MSTeacher said:

As an 8 year veteran of middle school teaching, it is pointless to have kids in school so long after testing and retesting has taken place. With the mandated start and end dates, it is already difficult to encourage and inspire enthusiasm in test-weary kids to "go to the next level" for two weeks! It is difficult to do that from August to test day..I mean May...Making up days at the end of the year, as others have already said, won't make up for the instruction students need before their AP Exams, EOCs and EOGs. When my eighth graders asked me why they couldn't make up days on Saturdays or take one from Spring Break, I told them that that decision was above my pay grade.

On top of that, these make up days will eat up the teacher workdays--that we have to make up as well! Consider this...If I worked on the snow days that were optional work days for me, should I have to come on those make up days? Should I have to use any of my earned leave time if I don't?

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And Guilford County's own Joe Stafford sounds off:

We are very fortunate to have Alan Duncan as the chairman of the school board. Although his motion was defeated, he wanted to have the snow makeup days prior to graduation and exams. He always supports what is in the best interest of educating our students. He gives priority to giving our students what they need rather than what their parents consider convenient or popular. We would all be better off if the superintendent, other board members and the citizens of Guilford County paid more attention to what he said. He is the best chairman the consolidated district has ever had.

Joe Stafford
Greensboro

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While I'm not exactly ready to sing praises of Alan Duncan, I will say that the ball was clearly dropped here. You have DPI setting the rules on calendars, then backpedaling on its own rules; you have GCS trying to abide by the state initially, then setting a fine example for our children by deciding to thumb their nose at the state, you also have a district who can't seem to create a calendar without controversy. You have gung-ho, test-driven DPI who demands state tests be given on specific days, and will strong-arm you if you don't. You have a state that says school must start by a certain date and end by a certain date, and laughs at the mere thought of local control being given to a school system.

And newsflash...gee, how do other districts create calendars...and seem to do it so well? It does snow in North Carolina in the winter.

This fight isn't over, in fact, it is just beginning. If I were Paul Daniels or Belton or Hebert, or Garrett, I would call a special meeting, hold hearings, do something. Yank the current calendar, start over, make doggone sure all I's are dotted, all T's are crossed. Because what happened this week was nothing short of a public distraction.

Borderline embarrassing, if you will. But embarrassing is Guilford County's middle name.

E.C. :)