Tuscaloosa schools no longer have Labor Day off?

We_are_Bama

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In all, they are losing 6 days off. Wow. It seems that Tuscaloosa County stands alone on this.
 

jthomas666

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Over the summer the state legislature passed a law that put restrictions on school schedules--Couldn't start until this date, school must be out by this date. School systems handled it in different ways, but a lot of holidays went bye-bye.
 

CrimsonChuck

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Why doesn't anyone ever flop-flip? Or is that just for left-handers?
Uh...Romney?

But back on the thread topic, this law is really bad.

School systems across the state have had to change their calendars to comply with the Flexible Calendar Act of 2012, a law passed May 10 by the Alabama Legislature that extended students’ summer break by about two weeks with the goal of increasing tourism at the state’s Gulf Coast beaches.
So the summer wasn't long enough to take your kid to the beach before? If I was a parent, I would specifically avoid Gulf Coast beaches this summer and take my kid out of school on Labor Day.
 

RTR91

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Uh...Romney?
Reading comprehension is your friend.
But back on the thread topic, this law is really bad.



So the summer wasn't long enough to take your kid to the beach before? If I was a parent, I would specifically avoid Gulf Coast beaches this summer and take my kid out of school on Labor Day.
Throughout my life, I've heard adults talk about having longer summers and how there is no summer anymore. Now there is a longer summer, people complain about it.
 

bamacon

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Labor day. Fall Break. Wed. Of Thanksgiving week. President's day and zero weather days. What irritated us is that our system coordinates with UA and we do that almost a year before the next school year. This was done at the last minute with zero input from schools. We like local control and this forced a master schedule for us. Originally we planned to add minutes to each day to get the equivalent time so we could keep our schedule. We were told we could NOT do that so we complied. Tusc city system told the state to screw off. They have the finances to do that, we don't.
 

Hamilton

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Sorry, but don't believe the lies. The school systems have more control. They can lengthen the school day by 15 minutes per day and get somewhere around 11 extra days off. Or they could do 5, 6, 7 extra minutes...it's up to the system. As long as they meet the minimum, which was changed to hourly from daily, and as long as they meet the start and end dates, the decision of when school is and is not in session is up to the local system. If systems wanted kids to have 12 hour days and only go to school 130 days a year, theoretically, they could do that.

bamacon, your system was not told by anyone at the state level that your system could NOT do that. It is the law. The old, "blame it on Montgomery" trick is on I have started questioning every time I hear it since I have been a public school teacher. I can't tell you how many times I've called ALSDE, then called BS on the county system trying to blame ALSDE. What your system may have been told is that teachers are still paid based on 187 day contracts, so they would still have to come even if the kids were at home.
 
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WMack4Bama

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Labor day. Fall Break. Wed. Of Thanksgiving week. President's day and zero weather days. What irritated us is that our system coordinates with UA and we do that almost a year before the next school year. This was done at the last minute with zero input from schools. We like local control and this forced a master schedule for us. Originally we planned to add minutes to each day to get the equivalent time so we could keep our schedule. We were told we could NOT do that so we complied. Tusc city system told the state to screw off. They have the finances to do that, we don't.
My kids are in a private school here, and said school typically follows the same schedule as Tuscaloosa city schools. Not so this year. The schedule for the year was already set in stone before the city schools decided to move their start date back. Kinda glad too.
 

bamacon

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Sorry, but don't believe the lies. The school systems have more control. They can lengthen the school day by 15 minutes per day and get somewhere around 11 extra days off. Or they could do 5, 6, 7 extra minutes...it's up to the system. As long as they meet the minimum, which was changed to hourly from daily, and as long as they meet the start and end dates, the decision of when school is and is not in session is up to the local system. If systems wanted kids to have 12 hour days and only go to school 130 days a year, theoretically, they could do that.

bamacon, your system was not told by anyone at the state level that your system could NOT do that. It is the law. The old, "blame it on Montgomery" trick is on I have started questioning every time I hear it since I have been a public school teacher. I can't tell you how many times I've called ALSDE, then called BS on the county system trying to blame ALSDE. What your system may have been told is that teachers are still paid based on 187 day contracts, so they would still have to come even if the kids were at home.
Look bud, I didn't mention the ALSDE although that could be a whole other subject. How in the Sam Hill is a a law that puts mandatory stop and start dates flexible? Just curious. I just have disdain for mandates regardless of where they come from. We need to be thinking waaaaaayyyyy outside the box in terms of education which this law was not about.

I am going to ask why the TCSS went with the choice they did. I bet I'll get more than one reason.
 
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Hamilton

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Labor day. Fall Break. Wed. Of Thanksgiving week. President's day and zero weather days. What irritated us is that our system coordinates with UA and we do that almost a year before the next school year. This was done at the last minute with zero input from schools. We like local control and this forced a master schedule for us. Originally we planned to add minutes to each day to get the equivalent time so we could keep our schedule. We were told we could NOT do that so we complied. Tusc city system told the state to screw off. They have the finances to do that, we don't.
You said Tuscaloosa City had some type of communication with and consequently told the state to screw off. I'll guarantee that they did not. They are following the policy, which gives them much freedom to make their own decisions.

The flexibility comes with allowing systems to decide to go with FEWER days for students. Systems can now add minutes to the day and go fewer days. At that point, what does it matter that they can't start school until later and that they have to end earlier? Schools can still start Sept 1 and get out April 15th if they decide to, as long as they go the required number of hours for the entire year, althought that is a bit extreme. "Local control" often means people in positions of power making decisions just because they can, and not necessarily those that are in the best interests of the students. Why stretch out the school year if it doesn't have to be stretched? And why take away holidays when they don't have to be? These are all issues that can be blamed directly on the local school system.
 

We_are_Bama

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This is messing up a lot of family travel plans for this upcoming weekend. If I was a parent who had kids in that school system, I'd grant them a "freebie" for Labor Day. Screw the school, what are the going to do, prove that my kids skipped? And even if they did, what's the worst they can do? Reprimand them? I know that their education is important and everything, but eliminating holidays is setting a very bad precedent. Kids need time with their families. I'm also afraid this is going to start a ripple effect if it hasn't already. When I got to work this morning, one of my many bosses was asking for "volunteers" to come in on Labor Day. When the room fell silent, his next response was a reference to the fact that Tuscaloosa County schools don't have it as a holiday. He added "you know, that really got us thinking about things, and how we really could do without some of our holidays as well". Wonderful. Employers already don't give a rat's backside that people have other things going on in life besides work, and now Tuscaloosa County has given them some strong ground to stand on. :mad:
 

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