BN1967 - The half days have no impact on this discussion as they are considered full days by DPI and students in the SDB get more than the mandated DPI minutes.

The half days were also not negotiated by the BEA (teacher's union) but by the school board who thought/thinks that giving teachers one half day a month to learn more about their profession was worthwhile.

MLK Day is still a day off in Beloit. You can argue it's merit if you want but that won't change the fact that the community believes this day is important enough to have off.

Beloit has already rescheduled it's snow day for January 30th, a day that was scheduled for conferences and conference prep in the elementary school.

Ihavealife....here is the link to the letter from the State Superintendent regarding the start date.
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http://www.legis.state.wi.us/cr_final/01...

Maybe Beloit should stop dismissing kids 1/2 day on 1 Wednesday a month so teachers can have "teacher development" and use those 9 1/2 days for educating the kids. My district only allows for 2 1/2 days a year and the teachers are spent in inservices. Does Beloit still get Martin Luther King Jr.'s B-day off too? Sorry this topic wasn't about days off but I've always wondered about those Wednesday "early out" days and it seems odd that they would need 9 a year.

I think if your child has a doctor/dentist appointment on the "make up" day your child will be given an "excused absence" which won't hurt them. As a teacher I use the "scheduled" days off for my doctor/dentist appointments also and as we know sometimes we have to schedule this 6 months to a year in advance! As for teachers having to make up those hours they would lose on their work day I had to laugh! I put in 5 hours last Monday (during break) and another 5 hours on Saturday (along with 3 other teachers) just cleaning up, reorganizing and planning for the first week back. I wouldn't have any problem making up my hours since I stay after at least 30 minutes (usually I stay until 7 or 8 on Friday nights) after school. I can't imagine how the teachers that waltz out of school 10 minutes after the kids do get their planning and grading done (unless they take it home?). I hope the teachers in Janesville push for at least 2 built in snow days (I think my district has 3 and we are RURAL with kids some kids having an hour bus ride to school each morning).

radish - Yes your child will be considered absent if he/she is not in school that day. It will be a regular classroom day. We need to make up the snow day as soon as possible in case we should have another.

Will it count against kids who cant make it that day? I often use their days off for appointments. It would be nice to have a bit more notice for their makeup days.

So far both our snow days this year are in the first semester. Last year there was 1 the first semester and 3 second semester. one day was the end of Jan. due to windchill, the other 2 was the Feb blizzard.

I think the point most people are trying to make it that the planning has been rather poor. PLAN on having 1 snow day during the first semester. If we dont use it then the kids and teachers get a Friday off in January. PLAN on having 2 snow days the second semester. If they aren't used then the kids start summer break two days earlier. Are there other factors that won't accomodate this simple plan??

just some "fun" info....With the exception of last winter, and so far this past December, in the schhol years prior, Janesville cancelled classes once in eight years. Yes, I said 1 snow day in 8 years.That is why there is only one snow day in the calendar. When the calendar was being figured out, they looked at past years, because they didn't have the magic jeanie with them to tell them what winters in the future would be like.

sorry, I see that was answered

skinpuppy: about the after Labor Day mandated start of school. Isn't the mandate to start in September? When Labor day is late like it is this year, I believe they start Sept 1

My question is,,, does anyone get the point that we live in WI? Whether it be this year or last year or 10 years ago... we are going to have days that school is going to have to close. Why make them up if there isn't even going to be education provided? We think that the 23rd will be a normal day of education, but my guess is that it will still be a "fun day". I don't pay for my kids to go to school to watch TV and play non educational games. I pay the school fees for the knowledge that the teachers possess. The teachers get paid whether school is in session or not. So... why bother even closing the schools?

marymac...that was the problem last year. They waited too long to figure it out and by the time they knew that they needed to make up two days, the regularly scheduled days off that they could change to school days had already passed. I think they're trying to get ahead of the game and schedule make-ups when they can. I would suspect that there will be more that have to be made up before this long winter is over.

skinnypuppy, what I recall is exactly what you stated in your first post. The tourist communities, particularly Wisconsin Dells and Door County, lobbied for it so that they wouldn't lose their high school student employees and so that in most years the calendar would fall such that school wouldn't start until after Labor Day if the start date was mandated as September 1 or later.

As kids Edgerton had school start after labor day so (we slave labor) kids could get the tobacco crop done LOL

The snow is not over so why decide now wait to see how many days they miss before you have to use that there brain to figure it out later IMO

Beenthere...thanks for the clarification!Do you recall, though, that there were economic reasons behind that decision rather than the schools not having air conditioning? Just curious...

skinnypuppy, the mandated start date is not after Labor Day. The mandate from the State is that school cannot start before Sept 1. In the years when Labor Day is on the 6th or 7th of September, the school start date can be September 1, which would be before Labor Day on this cases.

Beloit schools used to have 3 snow days built in. The district "bought" them back from the teachers and used this to help pay for dental insurance.

At least this makeup day will be a "normal" day of education. The reason for having makup days should NOT simply be to comply with the state law. It should be to ensure that our children are getting a full education. The Saturday makup days last year were a joke. The teachers had no intention of teaching anything. Almost everybody I talked to said they spent their class time watching TV or playing games. Why bother sending your child if there is no intention of getting some form of eduction on a makup day??

At least 3 doesn't seem unreasonable....

I copied my comment from the other blog on this topic, but it will serve here as well:
As someone stated earlier, the school calendar is set up two years prior to its implementation, meaning that due to contractual obligations, extra snow days could NOT have been put in place for this year! Now, the NEXT two years will soon be being worked on, and we will see if any adjustments for snow days are made, but until then, please stop lamenting "why didn't we put more in?" Now you know! :) And finally, I think the high school kids will be just fine having their exams moved back a day; teachers will have to crunch in more grading that week with the loss of that Friday's work day, but I have no doubt they will all survive as well! I, for one, am grateful the day is being made up this quickly, is in fact a full day of education, and is not on a weekend. On a separate comment, I appreciated the longer break for winter; when I was growing up here, I clearly remember having longer breaks such as this as opposed to the last few years where students were back on Jan 2 and barely had one week of vacation. Lastly, the after Labor Day start date has nothing to do with air conditioning. That start date was mandated at the state level and was a response to tourist communities and their concerns over Labor Day weekend workers at the high school level as well as family vacations. It was an economic decision not an environmental one as I recall.

personally the school district should of never alotted for 1 snow day again this year after what happened last year should of been more prepared as we do live in wisconsin!