Marblehead Students Lose 3 April Vacation Days To Teachers Strike Make-Up Days
MARBLEHEAD, MA — Marblehead Public Schools will be in session three days during April vacation and two more days at the end of June — in addition to this coming Monday and four days during February vacation — to make up for the 10 days lost to last month’s teachers’ strike.
The School Committee voted in favor of the compromise Thursday night after a parent survey with 1,400 responses showed a preference for using April vacation to make up the days needed to reach 180 for the school year, with adding days at the end of June a second choice and adding days on Saturdays a distant third choice.
The same survey given to teachers and staff with 318 responses showed a preference for using Saturdays, followed by the end of June and April vacation.
Find out what's happening in Marbleheadfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Marblehead School Committee members supporting using three days during April vacation determined that having the four-day weekend around Patriots Day was one way to give students a break during what will be a punishing stretch of continuous school for six months beginning after the New Year’s holiday.
The last day of school under the revised schedule is now June 24 — barring any snow days. High school graduation day would remain on June 6.
Find out what's happening in Marbleheadfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
The Marblehead School Committee broke differently than the one in Beverly, which chose to use one Saturday each month to help make up for its strike days.
“I felt very strongly that the Saturdays would not be a viable consideration,” School Committee Chair Jennifer Schaeffner said. “We did actually hear from clergy in the form of an email that came to the superintendent and School Committee from some of the local rabbis … and the point was made that Sunday wasn’t considered. Sunday is sort of a de facto sabbath for other religions, for Christians, in our country and in the world.
“Trying to be very respectful of our Jewish community, the Saturdays were not … I was not going to consider them.”
Click Here: cheap gold coast titans jerseys
School Committee member Alison Taylor said that was her feeling as well.
School Committee member Sarah Fox said adding the three days in April and two more days late in June was the most “tolerable” of difficult options presented by the strike and that six-day weeks were too taxing on young children. She also noted there would be added financial repercussions for custodial and transportation staff working on weekends.
“People can convince themselves for different reasons that this one (solution) fits better in my life and this one fits better for others,” Fox said. “This is a hardship for everyone involved. There is no perfect answer.
“We just have to get as close to tolerable as we can.”
Drawing more discussion was the attendance policy surrounding the long school year that now remains.
Fox and Taylor pushed a proposal easing the attendance policy for the entire rest of the year.
“I am hoping people are not going to take advantage of it,” Taylor said. “But I think it is going to be a long, cold winter even if we don’t have seven feet of snow and it is maybe one of the small things we can do for our families to give back a little bit.”
Superintendent John Robidoux said that decision could potentially send a bad message to those prone not to attend school in the first place.
“Operationally, if we say you are absolved from attendance for the rest of the year we will have truancy issues more than we already do,” Robidoux said. “Our accountability to the state is going to be in the toilet. In my humble opinion as an educator, I don’t know if that’s the best way to address it.”
The School Committee ultimately voted to suspend the attendance policy for the 10 strike make-up days with an understanding that Robidoux will work on a plan to offer some type of relief for families and students who may require additional time off for the rest of this school year and present it at the first Committee meeting in January.
(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at [email protected]. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.
