I was going to write sooner; however, I wanted to see what really happened during the three “make-up” days instituted by the Fayette County School Board and the new superintendent, Dr. Bearden.
I did an informal poll of the middle and high school students in my neighborhood and their parents, and the consensus was that there was little new material taught and much of the school day non-value added.
I am disappointed that our school board and new superintendent took a middle of the road approach to the importance of class attendance.
In a letter to all parents explaining what was to happen during winter break, Dr. Bearden writes, “The board realizes that families and employees schedule family vacation around winter break and we will exercise flexibility in order to meet the needs of our community … the rationales for rescheduling these days is to maximize instructional time for our students … If your child will not attend school during any of the make-up days, be sure to send a signed written excuse to the principal of your school.”
The school board and Dr. Bearden were smart enough to anticipate the outrage they would hear from faculty and parents (with planned trips) if they did not allow the excuse. However, aren’t they smart enough to realize what a waste of time and money these three days were going to become?
When the message is: Attendance is not mandatory, do what you want, what do you think will happen?
I would be very interested to know what percentage of teachers (not substitutes) and students attended last week.
If attendance is really important and they wanted to really maximize instructional time, then they should have added three days to the end of the year. Simple as that.
However, they punted and went with a middle of the road decision to appease all factors.
The school board and new superintendent can dress up the decision as much as they like; however, the result was still ugly and they should have anticipated it.
What I learned is that the school board’s idea of maximizing instructional time for our students is way off. They really just wanted to check a box and say they met the state-required instructional time.
I expect better and have higher expectations of our Fayette School Board and Dr. Bearden. I will be curiously watching to see if there are any lessons learned if this were to happen again.
Michael Chrzanowski
Peachtree City, Ga.
