Survey says …

The previously mentioned Seattle Public Schools “when do you want to make up snow days” survey is up (scroll to the bottom of this page). It asks participants to rank six options in order of preference — but murkily notes that some combination of the options will be required to make up all of the days missed so far this year (not to mention whatever’s yet to come). They’re laying pretty much everything on the table — “mid-winter” break, spring break, end of year. We’d just as soon get rid of “mid-winter” break — it’s so unnecessary, coming so close to Christmas vacation, and not that far ahead of spring break. But our opinion may not matter anywhere near as much as the teachers’ union’s opinion; here’s what you get on the “thank you” page after taking the survey:

The district will tally and consider the response, discuss and bargain the calendar with the Seattle Education Association, and announce the revised schedule as soon as possible. 

2 Replies to "Survey says ..."

  • Jack January 19, 2007 (6:28 am)

    Getting rid of mid-winter or spring break does not work for some families. We go on vacation during those weeks and must book trips in advance with no refund option. If it comes to going to Hawaii or school during a period of time that was listed as vacation ( on the school district calendar issued in September )we will be in Hawaii-not school. I agree about eliminating the mid-winter break to begin with but it should be eliminated from future years not this year. While we are at it we should also modify the 2 week break at Christmas down to 1 week. The Seattle schools currently go deep into June before that last day of school. When I went to Seattle schools ( many years ago ) we got out of school for the summer usually by June 5th. Eliminating the 2 weeks of break time would be good for keeping kids more focused on school work and also give them and their families better options for summer vacations.

  • Administrator January 19, 2007 (6:53 am)

    We’re with you there. Especially regarding the school year already being too long, and ripe for being shortened by eliminating the over-abundance of “breaks” during the year.

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