Florida tourism industry wants to legislate school start date

At my school in Poenix, Arizona we start at late July and end at early June.

I am not sure if this was mentioned, but someone forgot about snow days. In my district on Long Island, we have a contractual calendar for 184 days. In addition to that there are 3 nights that are required. (meet the teacher night and 2 nights of parent/tecaher conferences). If we get hit with a good amount of snow or ice, the schools will close, due to the fact that many kids come to school via bus. Two snow days are built into the calendar. If we lose them to bad weather, it's not a big deal. If it doesn't snow, we eat them. If it snows for more than 2 days, certain vacation days get eaten away...such as those during the April vacation. That makes planning a trip hard to do and planning a vacation without paying peak prices impossible.

In New York City, the schools almost never close. That is because quite a bit of Federal and State funding is based on children who recieve free breakfast and free lunch. If the schools can't open, it's alleged that these kids won't eat.

I'm sure that the folks in Florida, don't worry about snow days, but you must close down for hurricanes. The people in Iowa must worry about twisters. I will presume that these are predictably seasonal.

Out here, most of the rooms aren't air-conditioned. It would take too much money to provide the wiring and the necessary units to deliver comfortable temperatures. Only the computer room, the library and the Principal's office have AC. Research has proven that when it gets too hot, children will not learn as well or behave as well as they would if they were comfortable. Add to that graduation rehersals and summer school and you can bet that it is a sweatbox. It might be cheeper to shut down for the summer then to install and run ac units.

Just a thought.

Maybe I am way off here or just missing something, but how old do you have to be to work at some of these places. For most places to be ride ops or even wait staff we are talking 18. If this is the case then what does any this have to do with high school calender days and teachers marking report cards. The majority of te people working at these places are college kids so this doesnt apply any way right? Everyone is rambling on about card markings, quaters, snow days, and teachers marking report cards. Who cares, colleges make there own schedules and can pretty much change them as they see fit. I have lived in West Michigan for 4 years and at WMU i have seen the semester schedule change in mid semester, adding and subtracting weeks at a time, and never once have i seen or even ever heard of a snow day. So if i am way off base then fine, but i really dont think the high school class has any effect on all of this anyway.

Okay. Here in centeral texas ussualy the schools follow this:

Start: Somewhere around August 16th

End: Somewhere around May 25th

There are roughly 175 student attended days

I have taught in the state of Florida and the school year is very different.

Teachers begin the first week of august, about the 6th or 7th. Students start one week after that, usually around the 14th. The school year is totally finished by labor day, or occasionally a day or two after that. I taught there for five years and the latest I was ever in school with kids was may 31.

I think it is wonderful to get the kids the time to work at amusement parks and things like that. With the school year down there how it is, and the rest of the country on a different schedule, it makes it very difficult for parks to hire school kids for the summer rush knowing that they won't be there in august when the last push of the summer is going on.

How much do Florida theme parks rely on high school students? Do they really make up that much of the theme park / resort work force? Maybe the industry needs to pay more to attract year round staff.

But there is a point where the pay may be too high. In oil-industry boom towns like Fort McMurray, the service industry has to offer competitive wages to attract workers from construction and other industry-related jobs. Starting wages at McDonald's or Subway in Fort McMurray are in the $13-15 per hour range, compared to minimum wage in most other communities. As a result, more local students are dropping out of high school to work these low-skill jobs.

I must admit that I'm a fan of year round school. I think that having +8 weeks of continuous vacation is not best for all kids. Kids do not retain what they learned as well as if they took shorter breaks. And how many working parents can take a summer off to spend time with their kids? If you work in a small office or a job where seniority is an issue, it's a lot easier to take time off mid-year than in August. And enthusiasts know that there are good off-peak times to visit theme parks with the kids.

Here is a link to the two school calendars used by the Calgary Board of Education. (http://www.cbe.ab.ca/calendars/default.asp) Both calendars achieve 187 teaching days (192 teacher workdays). Both are off the month of July, but the traditional calendar starts in early September, while the modified calendar starts in mid-August. The three-week difference is allocated to a week of vacation in mid-October (extending the Canadian Thanksgiving long weekend), an extra week at Christmas (three weeks instead of two), and an extra week for spring break (two weeks instead of one). In my opinion, those longer mid-year breaks are better for working families.

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My unpopular belief is that this should only start with new teachers

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Just a suggestion Jeffrey: Don't preface your opinions like this. It seems like you are setting up for an argument or getting defensive well before anyone has even countered you. I might happen to agree with you, but I feel less inclined to say anything because it feels like I'm getting myself into a hornets nest.

The ACLU is an organization that survives by getting attention. So yes, I can see how it could get lost along the way. But come on. Don't you think we need checks and balances? The unions and ACLU may have their problems, but the organizations they counter also need to survive and do so in nefarious ways. How would you protect our civil liberties? Rely on the charity of those with power?

Anyway, when all is said and done, and I'm sure you'll agree with me, it really starts at home.