The Virginian-Pilot
VIRGINIA BEACH - Students in Beach public schools have Mother Nature to thank for an earlier start to summer this year.
Because the schools did not need to use the bad weather day built into the calendar, the last day of school will be a day earlier, Thursday, June 14.
High school exams will begin a day earlier, June 11, and elementary and middle school dismissal will be June 13 and 14.
Year-round students will be dismissed June 12 to 14.
Also, a staff day originally scheduled for June 18 has been bumped to Friday, June 15.
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Teachers are on under contract...
Teachers are not under contract to work those "extra" days. Schools that do not use their snow days need to give them back, otherwise teachers are working a half a week extra for free. Teachers resent it, as it is one more abuse of their goodwill, and most will call in sick, which means the schools will have to pay for subs to babysit. I commend VBPS for wisely doing the right thing by the teachers. If only Suffolk, Portsmouth, etc. did the same...
Good Grief
I agree with Chip Allen, in that one day will not make a difference. Futher, Virginia ranks 7th in the nation in regards to education, with Va Beach ranking highly in Virginia. Lastly, before one starts complaining about the city's poor education policies, one should examine his/her own grammar. (i.e. "college-age student(S) ranks seventh...)
One day -
Not a good idea?
Adding one more day of instruction isn't going to raise test scores. We're only talking an extra 13 days of instruction over the course of an entire public school education. My teenager probably spends more time than that each year staring out the window and dreaming about summer vacation and she still manages to make honor roll each grading period. To improve test scores we need to improve the quality of instruction, not the quantity.
Not a good idea
Americans are familiar with embarrassing examples of our students' body of knowledge. Every year there's a series on the national news that shows youngsters unable to locate Switzerland on a map or students who associate Pearl Harbor with World War I. Just this week results of a new international study were announced - U.S. college-age student rank seventh in geography knowledge among eight major nations. And according to the National Assessment Governing Board, which issues the Nation's Report Card, progress isn't rapid. (High school history and geography scores showed no measurable improvement at all between 1994 and 2001.) This is why we should teach another day and get a day off! So here is your Duh!!!