
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 4, 1994                   TAG: 9403040128
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: FAIRFAX                                LENGTH: Medium

FAIRFAX CONSIDERS A BREAKLESS SPRING

Spring break might mean study hall instead of beach reveling for Fairfax County students next year.

School Superintendent Robert Spillane suggested scrapping the weeklong holiday in 1995 as a way to end the school year earlier and make it easier to reschedule classes canceled by winter storms.

The county School Board is trying to reshuffle the 1994-95 school calendar to address concerns from parents and teachers who say the current calendar is too rigid.

Teachers and students generally oppose canceling the break, however. Several School Board members said the idea makes sense.

"I don't think it's sacrosanct," School Board member Stuart Mendelsohn said. "I don't know that we need a whole week at spring break. No one else in the work world has that kind of a schedule."

Representatives of the county's two organizations for teachers vowed to fight any attempt to kill the vacation.

"Essentially for the teachers, the classroom is battlefield conditions, and we need some R and R," said Rick Nelson, president of the Fairfax County Federation of Teachers, referring to servicemen's rest and recreation breaks.

If school administrators scrap the break, "teachers will send them a box of chalk and say, `You go in there and teach,' " he said.

Kelly Peaks Horner, president of the Fairfax Education Association, said the School Board should hold public hearings before the idea goes any further.

She also said the board does not understand how hard teachers work.

"I challenge each one of them to spend a week with a teacher," she said. "Have them experience the incredible stress they are under."

During this unusually harsh winter, the School Board repeatedly has discussed better ways to make up snow days. Parents have complained the school year extends too far into June.

Spillane's proposal would mean school would let out before June 15 for the first time in years, and snow makeup days could be easily tacked onto the end of the year.

"I'm inclined to think it's better to have our kids in school in early April rather than in late June," said School Board Chairman Gary Jones.

by CNB