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Schools

School bells ring to grumbling

As college football players pass pigskins, Pinellas County students push pencils.

By THOMAS C. TOBIN
Published January 3, 2006

	[Times photo: John Pendygraft]
	Matt McCoy, 17, center, waits for the bell in his last class at St. Petersburg High School on Monday. "Why should we have school when its a national holiday? Everything is closed," said McCoy, who wore his Florida Gators shirt in honor of the team's appearance in the Outback Bowl.

Insensitive.

Out of synch with the rest of America.

Antifamily.

Those were some of the more charitable comments from Pinellas parents annoyed that schools reopened Monday after a two-week winter break. The school system, they said in a smattering of e-mails and calls to district headquarters, should have figured out a way to observe the New Year's holiday on Monday - the same as government offices, banks and many other businesses.

The day was one that many parents like Betty Schaefer would have liked to have spent with their kids. Schaefer was off from work Monday along with her husband. Their older son, a college student, was home too. But their younger son, a sophomore at St. Petersburg High, was not.

"It's not often that we actually have time when they're older to spend with them," she said. "Here we were, off from work, and he had to go to school."

About 10 percent of Pinellas students did not show up to school Monday, district officials estimated. Although that adds up to more than 10,000 students, it is only 4 percent more than the usual absentee rate.

Teachers, administrators and other staff members showed up as usual, making it a "better-than-normal Monday" for school employees, said Ron Stone, a district spokesman.

In Hillsborough County, teachers reported to work Monday, but schools did not reopen for students until today. Hernando County schools reopen Wednesday. Pasco and Citrus schools don't reopen until next week.

The decision to reopen Pinellas schools Monday has been public since December 2004, when the School Board approved this year's schedule. But it only recently began to sink in as parents took a closer look at the calendar.

District schedules are submitted to the board by the calendar committee, a group of administrators, employee union representatives and a School Board member. The panel works in a three-year cycle to keep annual schedules relatively stable so families can plan ahead.

Why not just schedule Monday off?

It's not so easy when you're trying to comply with state law, work around religious holidays, fit in a spring break week and meet other demands by students and their families, calendar committee members say.

The panel first must pencil in 180 days of classes to comply with state law. Then it factors in the desire by teachers, students and parents that the first semester end before the winter break, Stone said. For the second semester, the goal is to be out of school by Memorial Day, he said.

Jade Moore, executive director of the Pinellas teachers union and a member of the calendar committee, cited an additional factor. The committee had to schedule the second semester to end Tuesday, May 16, so graduations could be held Wednesday and Thursday, May 17 and 18. The district could not schedule graduations on Friday, May 19, because of the Jewish Sabbath, he said.

"It's kind of a balancing act," Stone said.

"It's not really the end of the world if someone misses the Rose Bowl Parade," Moore said of Monday's school day. "They've been out of school for two weeks. We have to get them back to work."

Next year's schedule has students coming back from winter break on Jan. 8. Stone said he anticipates complaints from parents about having to find child care in the week after New Year's Day. The later reopening date is due to school starting a little later than usual on Aug. 8, 2006, to appease parents who wanted a longer summer.

That schedule, however, will have other implications, including classes continuing up to Dec. 21. Teachers are scheduled to work through Friday, Dec. 22.

School superintendent Clayton Wilcox said he has asked the calendar committee to take another look at next year's schedule.

"The bigger issue is a lot of people do rely on us to be open and closed consistent with what the larger work environment is in Tampa Bay," he said. "Realistically, that's something we've got to be sensitive to."

Not everyone found fault with the day of school Monday. Mike Marckese, principal at Pasadena Fundamental Elementary in St. Petersburg, said some parents thanked him for a vacation day without the kids.

More than 40 students were absent from Pasadena on Monday, Marckese said, up from the usual six or seven. But teachers pressed ahead as usual.

Like other principals, he acknowledged that every day of instruction is important with the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test just a few weeks away.

"This is the start of the second semester," Marckese said. "This is an important day for us - when we say, "Yaaa. Snap the reins and move ahead."'

[Last modified January 3, 2006, 04:26:52]