School calendar follies

Peridically Sophie's school sends home notes in her backpack. They're usually about some fund-raiser or a reminder to bring in supplies like an empty egg carton for a project. Yesterday it was a notice that made me go a little bonkers. They're adding 2 extra days off to the Easter break. Why? Because they allocated 3 snow days for the year and they only used one.

Did it ever occur to these folks that they should just be happy they have 2 extra days to teach the kids? Why is it necessary to give them two more days off, and screw up our work schedules in the process? The school calendar is posted in September and we planned our vacations and days off around their myriad of holidays, half-days, and breaks. When school is closed one of us has to stay home with Sophie. Two more days off means Tammy and I each have to blow another vacation day (or sick day if my boss doesn't read this blog <grin>).

Plus, they make us pay in advance for the hot lunch program, and there are "absolutely no refunds". So I'm out 8 bucks for the 2 lunches Sophie won't get to eat. (OK, I won't go broke over 8 bucks, but it's the principle of the thing.)

They made a big deal at the kindergarten orientation about not pulling our daughter out of school for vacations because the kids need to understand that school is important. I guess it's only important when they don't have two extra snow days to burn off.

Posted at 13:07 by Chris Wysocki   [/sophie]   Comments | Perm Link |   |   Tweet