That's what I've heard as well -- it's a way to cut down on transportation and utility costs, generally proposed in rural districts with longer school commutes.
This is not the podmommies, believe it or not. This is worse: this is the OMG MY PROPERTY TAXES!!!!1! assholes. This is, "Wow, it costs a lot to bus kids from the hinterlands to school and back and to heat the school building in the winter. Hey, I got an idea - let's cancel school EVERY Friday! That'll save us bucks
( ... )
what worries me is this: i went into sean's classroom last time i was at the school and there was a calendar by the door. sean's column was suspiciously blank, so i wondered why, and looked at the other kids' columns: something was written in pretty much every square, some external therapy that was in the morning or afternoon or in some cases the entire day of weekly scheduled absence times - times that the child in question was leaving early/coming in late/had a recurring absence because of some external therapy session. that plus this is kind of terrifying. sped moms have a higher chance than usual to become supermoms because their kids are already higher-maintenance than neurotypical ones. at least in my experience (which is admittedly limited.)
Maybe so, but 2 plus 2 here does not equal 4. I heard something about this (probably in another area, or just in general) on NPR a month or two ago.
For the record, I don't think it's just a property tax thing, either, just a general "our school/district isn't getting enough funding, how can we cut costs without depriving kids of their education and having screaming parents down our throats?" I can see the sense in it for NT kids at higher grade levels, who can handle the longer days and the longer weekends. But I can also see where it would be a problem for various types of SPED kids, who need the "extra" day of services.
Huh. My kids go to a (charter) school with a 4.5 day week (half-day on Fridays; kids go from 8:40 am to 3:30 pm.) The teachers use Friday afternoons for planning, marking and professional development. We don't get all the get-out-of-school-early days or random PD days the public system has, which makes scheduling actually more consistent. YMMV of course.
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If they are going to do a 4 day school week, we need to have a 4 day work week also.
I don't think it's a podmommy idea... as they tend to be working in the classroom. I see it as an administrative idea -- an attempt at saving money.
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i went into sean's classroom last time i was at the school and there was a calendar by the door. sean's column was suspiciously blank, so i wondered why, and looked at the other kids' columns:
something was written in pretty much every square, some external therapy that was in the morning or afternoon or in some cases the entire day of weekly scheduled absence times - times that the child in question was leaving early/coming in late/had a recurring absence because of some external therapy session.
that plus this is kind of terrifying. sped moms have a higher chance than usual to become supermoms because their kids are already higher-maintenance than neurotypical ones. at least in my experience (which is admittedly limited.)
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For the record, I don't think it's just a property tax thing, either, just a general "our school/district isn't getting enough funding, how can we cut costs without depriving kids of their education and having screaming parents down our throats?" I can see the sense in it for NT kids at higher grade levels, who can handle the longer days and the longer weekends. But I can also see where it would be a problem for various types of SPED kids, who need the "extra" day of services.
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