Anyone Experiencing This?

I have a cruise scheduled to take my goddaughter coming up in a few weeks. The problem is, because of the bad winter weather, they lost a lot of school days so now the district is trying to schedule make up days. They've now decided to take away most of the Easter vacation, which is when we're supposed to go. Can't cancel and I'm one of those who don't like taking kids out of school for a vacation. Plus, her parents, my cousins, won't allow this. So, is anyone else out there experiencing something similar? I'll probably wind up either taking a friend or going it alone.

I'm a teacher and we're booked to go away during our spring break. We lost 2 days, but I'll be going anyway and using personal days. I know quite a few other teachers doing the same thing, that's very noble of her parents, but between the amount of teachers and students who may be out, I have a feeling those make up days will be more of babysitting than actual teaching.

A few years back we had some ice storms in mid-April which extended the school year by two days at the end of the year. We had an AK cruise scheduled. I volunteering in my DDs room and her teacher caught wind of our dilema and confirmed the ealier poster's comment. Her teacher had non-refundable airline tickets and so had already informed the school system that she'd need a substitue for 1.5 of the 2 days.

Similarly I never felt any qualms about taking DD out of school the Mon and Tues of US Thanksgiving week - they generally watched DVDs and played games those two days.

We are also cutting into our spring break. I wouldnt hesitate to take mine out of school though. Actually i am for our trip next month. I agree with previous poster, so many of them will be out that i wouldnt even worry.

Considering the circumstance- I say just go. I don't think it is fair for the school system to do this one month from spring break. It would be more appropriate to extend the school year- giving parents plenty of time to cancel their summer camps and vacation plans.

We're pretty much in the same boat. We have five days to make up and the Board of Ed is meeting tomorrow to decide what to do. They've already added a day to the end of the school year which takes it through the second week of June. Their policy is to not go into the third week, so it's either Spring Break days or extended school hours.

My oldest daughter is getting married on our sailing, so there is no way we're not going. I've NEVER pulled my kids from school for vacations and feel very strongly about it.

I have a cruise scheduled to take my goddaughter coming up in a few weeks. The problem is, because of the bad winter weather, they lost a lot of school days so now the district is trying to schedule make up days. They've now decided to take away most of the Easter vacation, which is when we're supposed to go. Can't cancel and I'm one of those who don't like taking kids out of school for a vacation. Plus, her parents, my cousins, won't allow this. So, is anyone else out there experiencing something similar? I'll probably wind up either taking a friend or going it alone.

Hi Darcie.

(and I am being very serious about my comment)

I strongly believe that travel is education.

You will be contributing to her education.

I have a cruise scheduled to take my goddaughter coming up in a few weeks. The problem is, because of the bad winter weather, they lost a lot of school days so now the district is trying to schedule make up days. They've now decided to take away most of the Easter vacation, which is when we're supposed to go. Can't cancel and I'm one of those who don't like taking kids out of school for a vacation. Plus, her parents, my cousins, won't allow this. So, is anyone else out there experiencing something similar? I'll probably wind up either taking a friend or going it alone.

It is a tough call. I must say, if she is a high school students with math or science this semester, catching up can be difficult if she misses more than a couple of days. That said, many families will follow through with their plans - parents have scheduled vacation time, paid depists, etc. overall, it is the decision of your goddaughter's parents.

Are the students in a lot of AP classes? Those would probably continue to meet and teach new material, since AP courses need to get all the content covered before the exams in May. In non-advanced courses, some of the teachers will choose to go ahead with new material, but others will find alternative activities since it is very challenging to introduce material when many students are absent (I'm a former teacher in a district that never took snow days, so I am familiar with this situation. At my school, very few of the teachers taught on days with substantial absences, but different schools have very different cultures and make different choices).

I can understand the parents not wanting to pull their children from school under normal circumstances, but they might be willing to do so under these conditions since it is quite possible that their children won't miss very much new material (unfortunately it is impossible to predict or guarantee if this will happen). The teachers would be likely to be much more sympathetic to a student going on vacation under these circumstances than when parents deliberately decide to pull their children during the school year. I think you should ask the parents to talk to the children's teachers and then make a decision. Our local district has changed its calendar, and stated that absences would not be held against a student if the parents could document that they had paid for a vacation prior to the district deciding to restore school days.

You also might want to contact the cruise line directly to ask about a friend coming along; if you are past your final deposit, they may not allow a name change for a passenger or may charge a substantial fee and argue this should have been covered by travel insurance (although I'm not sure a change to a school calendar actually is covered by travel insurance).

Hi Darcie.

 

(and I am being very serious about my comment)

I strongly believe that travel is education.

 

You will be contributing to her education.

I completely agree...

I am a substitute teacher. We get MANY calls when the school system schedules make up days.. The teachers already have plans to go out of town, so we get called in. I can say, the teachers usually DO NOT have alot of educational plans during this time, unless they have changed their lesson plans around it, which usually only happens in 10% of classes. Most teachers use it as a "free day" or a relax day..

*Yes, I know I will get flamed. I don't care. It is what happens.. Sorry if I stepped on your feelings teachers but I know. I have seen it. I have had to handle many make up days and all the kids did was read or watch a movie..*

And, yes, I am pulling my children out for our cruise, with the schools knowledge. One child is even getting all 5 days approved because her principal holds the same knowledge as above. Kids can learn so much more, just by a trip, than they will in those same days in a classroom..

Yikes, that's sad. What does your goddaughter think of this?

Personally I think it's cruel of her parents to promise a cruise and then take it away because of snow in December.

Yes, education is important but so is keeping promises. I'd be pissed if my parents pulled a stunt like that. :mad:

We were almost in a similar situation. Our school district extended the school calendar to make up for snow days. Luckily I gave us a week buffer before scheduling our cruise. But I would have pulled the kids out too.

<Hand Raised> We are in the same situation except 1- it is at the end of the school year so DS will miss last week of school & 2- we are still going. The kids only went to school 4 FULL days (3 days total with 2 half days) from Dec 18th-Jan 30th, no joking....they took away spring break and added on one week. That is the MOST they can do by law. So what did the school board vote on going forward? Starting next year the kids start Aug 11th and end May 22nd but it can legally be extended to June 30th to allow for a full 180 days. Talk about trying to figure out vacation next year...we will only have July to be "safe" and not miss school.

I'm not that worried about this year since the last week is a week of signing year books etc plus he has not missed a single day thus far (knock on wood).

I did take him out a week in 2012 to go to Disney for the first time and guess what....if I ask him to tell me about Disney he can give me specific details down to what we did each day along with I wore at each meal along with WHAT I ate. If I ask him what did he learn in school the week before we left or after we got back I get a blank stare. So to me....the point on vacation being educational it proof within my own child!!

Have the parents mentioned this to anyone at the school? I would encourage them to do so! We made up 2 of our snow days during Spring Break. My kids came home, saying they had extra "study" times and watched a total of 2 movies each day. Yes, the movies "fit" the classes. (e.g. Spanish class was LaBamba) but still just to fill a day. Also attendance was so low, that nothing new was introduced. :rolleyes: Clarification- my dd is a senior in all AP classes. They did not have new material either...

I would argue that the relationship is worth more than make up days.:cool:

Whether to take kids out of school, for me, depends on the grade they're in...elementary or middle.....I'd do it. High school...no way.

They just changed the schedule----again----so we're going on the cruise. Every school district is doing their own thing, with some taking away Easter break (my district) to adding days at the end or taking away teacher prep days (her district). There will be no penalty for any child not attending school because of previously scheduled vacations, which is prudent of the system to do.

They just changed the schedule----again----so we're going on the cruise. Every school district is doing their own thing, with some taking away Easter break (my district) to adding days at the end or taking away teacher prep days (her district). There will be no penalty for any child not attending school because of previously scheduled vacations, which is prudent of the system to do.

Have the parents mentioned this to anyone at the school? I would encourage them to do so! We made up 2 of our snow days during Spring Break. My kids came home, saying they had extra "study" times and watched a total of 2 movies each day. Yes, the movies "fit" the classes. (e.g. Spanish class was LaBamba) but still just to fill a day. Also attendance was so low, that nothing new was introduced. :rolleyes: Clarification- my dd is a senior in all AP classes. They did not have new material either...

I would argue that the relationship is worth more than make up days.:cool:

Since she is in three AP classes, two college classes and band -- she appreciates not having to make up time later in the school year. The AP tests are early May and both college classes have finals the week of May 12th. So other than Band she's done 5/14 after an 8:00am test. The AP classes can optionally "meet" but don't really have classes and the college classes time becomes study hall -- who needs 2+ weeks of five hours of study hall and one hour of band? :D

You can't control the weather, (freezing rain all morning about 25 miles north of here) so you deal with whatever comes! And hey, it is "only" early April, we could still have another snow day! (DD's best friend's birthday is 4/14 and we've had one snow day, one ice day and one delayed start in her school "lifetime")

Many district around here were in the same situation! In Philadelphia we didn't have a full week of school due to holiday, conferences or weather from Thanksgiving until mid-March!!! Since I teach at a charter and we make up our time by hours, and have a ton of flexibility, we took away one of the kids Friday's they should have had off, and our kids normally get out at noon on Wednesdays for teacher professional development. They made up 3 hours every Wednesday since New Years and we will continue to do so until June. We didn't lose our spring break or add days, which was our priority, however it really messed up parents schedules on Wednesdays! The city school district lost half of their spring break. We had off from the Wednesday before easter at Noon until April 28th because many of our students travel to the Caribbean and Latin American countries to visit their family over the Easter holiday. If we would have lost Spring break our attendance would have been below 50% every day and teachers would have been about the same!