moco-I read the article just fine. I was responding to the COMMENTS about parents needing to teach children responsibility. This seemed the perfect way to illustrate that we learn by example.

golf1 - Many adults preach about teaching students responsiblity, but how many actually practice what they preach?

dobberino......Since you seem to have a thorough understanding of this, perhaps you could do us all a favor and inquire at SDJ offices and report back.
I would do it myself but not being that familiar with it I probably couldn't answer any related questions the administration would probably ask me abou it.
I know I would appreciate it and I'm sure many others would also,

Thanks

ithink2much--The state defines a "school day" as a day on which school is actually taught (instruction occurs), a day on which school is closed by order of the school district administrator because of inclement weather, a day on which parent-teacher conferences are held and no instruction occurs, and a day on which school is closed by order of a health officer. No more than 5 days of the 180 day total can be used for P-T conferences and inclement weather.

Those 2 Thursday P-T conference days where there were no classes count as school days. The 2 Fridays after the conference days there is no school at all, and shouldn't count as school days.

On second count, I see only 178 school days scheduled for Janesville schools! Can anyone verify this?

hannah: You are on the wrong blog. This has absolutely nothing to do with teachers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If you want to discuss what they get paid email me and I will enlighted you on how much a teacher that has been in the field for 10 years is being screwed... If you don't then take your negativity towards the teachers elsewhere!

Are you related to justsome1here?????????? You both seem to have issues reading the article.

Dobberino - although conferences were held for an evening (Wed) and a day (Thurs) in both fall and earlier this month, students had 2 "non-teaching" days both times. Students did not have school on the day of the conferences (Thursdays) and did not have school on Friday, either. So, if we are counting days the students are "out" of the buildings, there are 4 total. (I realize that staff members were present for the conferences, but it is a non-teaching day.)

Just come in on Saturdays and be done with it. If there is a daycare issue or something else that is legit then don't send your child. I would guess that the district will be sympathetic to some of these circumstances. If you disagree with Saturday's then don't send your child, it's only education right??? How much more can they learn??? Teach your children to be responsible, it is only a few days out of life.

justsome1here: Why did you have to bring the teachers into something that they have nothing to do with. Stay on the topic or get off the blog.

dobberino.....interesting.....have you inquired at district office about this?
It would be interesting to hear for sure what's going on.

If you can get the legislature to agree to that, power to you. That is a law that was enacted thanks to the Dells area and Door County area so that they had more people (high schoolers) to work for them through Labor Day Weekend. Funny how two communities can dictate for the entire state.

Does anybody know what it would take to enable a district to start classes before labor day? If the schedule is too crammed at the end of the year why not re-open the issue of starting earlier?

Some parking lots may not have cars in them because not all inservices are held strickly with that buildings staff. Many times an inservice could be grade related and all district K-1 teachers meet a "X-Elementary" and 2-3 teachers meet at "Y-Elementary" and all middle school teachers meet at "Z-Middle School". Therefore, some lots empty, some lots full. Again so many assumptions and judgements being levied about the teachers and what the administration is asking of them.
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We repeat AGAIN....it does no good to eliminate the remaining half days and send the students. Those days are already counted as a full day. You would still be in the same boat to make up the days.
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Sluggo: I agree! If kids gave up video game time or t.v. time to be with family, then spending part of a couple Saturdays sure would balance out. For heavens sakes people, they're not even going to have to go from the normal 8:20-3:00. It's not like it's going to be there every Saturday for the rest of the school year, for pete sakes.
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I do feel for those trying to work with parental visitation but I would hope that parents could be coopertive and work something out together...for the sake of the child(ren) and their education. It is also unfortunate for those high schoolers with jobs. I would hope that their employers would understand the value of an education and also be cooperative in working something out so those students could still attend school and get their hours in that weekend.

Question:
Does summer school start for all buildings the 1st week? I understand the middle schools and high schools for sure start the second week. I know some elementary start the 1st week but do all elementary start the 1st week is a question I have.

This Global cooling is for the birds, give me Global warming anytime

it is only 2 days of there lives, not a life time for heavens sake, other schools in the area have 6 days to make up, get over it already. It sounds like the parents are more upset over this than the kids.

I got an idea - why don't the kids sacrifice four hours of video games to make up for 'family time' missed per saturday.

Ok last time - it would be great if we could use insevice days...but we can't - they already count as full days. Janesville needs to make up 2 days not minutes.

Though there are 4 days where P-T conferences are held, only the 2 days of conferences held instead of class count towards the 5 days--the other 2 days do not, because conferences were held after school.

Dobberino - I am pretty sure the kids (at least at the high school) had 4 days off for PT conferences--two in the fall and two just recently, so your calculations aren't quite right. Once adjusted, they will be exactly as reported.

I am sorry I don't get work time to myself at work, I have people coming to me all day long, sometimes to the point of where I don't get everything done that I should do, and I take it home. I don't get paid for doing it at home. My point is why do teachers have so many half days and inservice days to begin with. Cut those days out and use them to make up snow days. Like some one else mentioned if these are truly inservice days, half days for work, the parking lot should not clear out until after 3 p.m.

Deweez, "Most of us who work over time do not get extra time off when we do." Your right, you get paid overtime...they don't. In fact they are not compensated at a time and a half rate. Your lucky your not a teacher.

I think they should nix the "Early Release Day" (the 2nd Monday) of every month, BEGINNING NOW, to make up the "Snow Days".

Though I COMPLETELY understand that those "half-days" are to be utilized for Teacher "Inservice" Days (..& that's GOOD!)...BUT, I OFTEN wonder WHY the schools' parking lot is ALMOST cleared by 2PM...! (...Where ARE the inservices held, anyways....??)

I read these articles and I am confused. The state law states that school must be SCHEDULED to be in session 180 days, no matter how long each day as long as instruction occurs. It also states that FIVE of those scheduled days may be used for parent-teacher conferences and when school is closed due to inclement weather. What this really means is that schools are required to be in session a minimum of 175 days as long as the minimum number of hours of instruction is met. Unless I counted wrong, Janesville schools scheduled 180 days, use two days for P-T conferences, and had four days where school closed due to weather--for a total of SIX days. So unless school board policy and/or the collective bargaining agreement with the union says otherwise, only ONE day needs to be made up. Can anyone in the know verify the board policy/CBA info about making up snow days, because I don't know? FYI--I do negotiate calendar for another school district, so I'm well aware of what the law says. Link to the law: http://dpi.wi.gov/cal/dayspi.html

Oh, justsome1there, you are a funny person, aren't you? Stop belittling the teachers. Focus on the real issue.

This seems to be a perfect opportunity for students to demonstrate what they have "learned" from the recent contract negotiations: Only report to school based on the contract (the published school calendar), stage sick-outs to demonstrate your frustrations and protest in front of schools.

Way to place an emphasis on the education of your/our youth!

So many people seem to think that people in the teaching profession are just there for the money. I know plenty of teachers and that is a joke. They make so little money/hour once you take into account all the time they spend on work.

No wonder there are so many troubled youth.
No respect for adults, they hear all this complaining about the education system, and therefore think it is unimportant (I am generalizing with that statement).

The apple doesn't fall very far from the tree.

deweeze - What's stopping you from becoming a teacher then? Last time I checked the department of education never stipulated who could and could not become a teacher. All you need is a degree, hell if you want to substitute you don't even need a teaching degree. You seem to be rather educated so sign yourself up.

p.s. I was kidding about you sounding educated.

Just a thought - could'nt Governor Doyle "pardon" the snow days ? After all he declared that Rock County was under a state of emergency. I would think that alone would be enough evidence to give a waiver for these 2 days.

hannah- I think you got a little off topic here. We are talking about making up snow days not teacher's pay. Teachers are not complaining about making up snow days. I'm sure they aren't thrilled with the idea of making them up on a Saturday since many of them have families, too. It's the parents that are unhappy with the Saturday idea since it takes away from family time. By the way, teachers work more than 6 months a year.

Sounds to me like a bunch of people will be signing up to become teachers. That is good, there is a predicted to be a good number of teachers retiring in the up coming years. Glad to see there will a surplus of teachers.

deweez- i agree yet they complain about who little they earn. love to earn $30 approx and only have to work for 180 days. seems about right ratio for only working 6 months and get benefits too!!!they can also suppliment that income in summer if they want to. oh that is right they have to contribute some of their own money to that now like the rest of us.

wish jobs were this way only have to go 9 months of the year. 2 1/2 seems like enough time off to me

get rid of the stupid early outs on monday and there wouldnt be a problem if your talking about hours in school. i dont have kids yet but seems to me yould be messing up people schudules one monday every month

If next winter is as bad as this we will being having this discussion again. Next year's calandar (2008-2009) is set and they are well on thier way to getting 2009-2010 done also. In my opinion teachers dont need the fridays off after conferences. Right there they have 2 of those day already made up. Most of us who work over time do not get extra time off when we do. Why should they? I would love to work 190 days a year and get paid what they do.

What about the people who would not have any daycare for Saturdays? Or the children of divorce who have parents who live an hour away or more that has court ordered visitation. What are they suppose to do?? Has the school district thought about any of those or more cercumstances with having school on Saturday.

Again, they CAN NOT make up days by using the inservice days. These are already counted as a full day of school because they were there at least 4 hours and were served lunch. DPI asks for days AND hours/minutes. Janesville has the time, not the days.

If the district were to add in extra snow days (which I think that they should), why can I see future blogs having many people complaining about how long the school year goes into the summer and poor Johnny is being tortured by having to go to school sooooo long. An education is a priveledge, not an obligation!

Another article had many people complaining about school on Saturday. If there is a LEGITIMATE reason to miss like on any other school day-illness, funeral, etc., then there shouldn't be an issue with parents keeping their children home. Any other reason (It's Saturday.) is just plain and simple irresponsibility on the part of the parents. I believe is was 'wisconsinheat' who brought up the rsponsibility issue and s/he is totally right.

MikeF,
If the voters, by virtue of the school board whom they elect, and the teachers, who by virtue of their contract (OK, no wisecracks here) agree on a school calender, that's the way it should be.
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The district can't act alone. But the point is LOCAL CONTROL.

MikeF: then let's do it! If it helps get the budget back in order.... (kidding)

But, wisconsinheat, you then would have school districts doing something silly like extending the school day 90 minutes and eliminating Friday. It gives the same number of hours in the week, but cuts some costly expenses. Think about the cost of custodians, lunch servers, and bus service. Now cut that by 20% because you are only doing it 4 days a week instead of 5. Cost savings with the same amount of instructional time.

Maybe it's time for WEAC to put the heat on the governor and legislators who have been the beneficiaries of their large campaign contributions, as well as the elected superintendent of public instruction, to make the change to allow local districts to set their own number of days IF they meet the minimum HOURS requirement.
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Local control and flexibility.

Part of the problem is that the tourism industry pushed for the law that says public schools cannot start before Labor Day. That pushed back the start of the school year by several days. I am just waiting for them to want schools to be done by Memorial Day. After all, their argument for Labor Day had to do with having workers until the end of the summer tourism season.

The DPI requires 180 days of instruction (which is actually broken down into hours). Cancel the inservice days for the remainder of the year and your problem is nearly solved. Better yet, why not schedule 182, 183 or 184 days of school just in case things like this happen? What's the worst that will happen if we don't use the "built in scnow days"? The kids will have more instruction time and learn more. Oh no!

Are you kidding me Janesville Schools? We live in WISCONSIN...snow and cold are going to happen...we know there will be snow days, so why not plan ahead of time??? This is ridiculous...school on a Saturday because the district didn't plan...horrible. Next year the district better plan for at least 3 snow days. And starting summer school the very next week? I agree..idiotic.

Well maybe they shouldnt be closing down willie-nillie for piddly stuff and save them for real bad storms like the 2/5-6 one. Closing the school because of it is gonna be quite cold is rediculous.

Seriously WHY dont they have days already planned into the end of the year just for this? Going from regular school year to summer school the following monday is just idiotic.