ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, March 20, 1996 TAG: 9603200048
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-12 EDITION: METRO
IT'S BEEN a long, hard winter. This year, of all years, shouldn't every schoolchild get a weeklong spring break?
Heck no.
Not when kids were out of school 13 days over the winter because of snow, as they were in Roanoke County.
The weather has been so wicked that, like many localities, the county had to close schools more days than were built into the school calendar for that purpose. For some divisions, that has meant Saturday sessions or shorter spring breaks, or both. But not in Roanoke County.
County students have a longer school day than most, which allows the division to "bank" hours toward the state minimum instruction time. But, even combining this time with makeup days originally scheduled for teacher workdays, parent conferences or holidays, the schools came up short.
The solution? Extend the schoolday by another 10 minutes.
Why? Because parents and teachers wanted the full spring break. After all, some had made family vacation plans.
Granted, this is a tricky problem. Not just Roanoke County, needing to make up for weather-related school-closings, has struggled to find a balance that satisifies more people than it angers or inconveniences. No one has come up with a solution that satisfies everyone.
Granted, too, it's commendable the county has a longer-than-average school day. In years when the district doesn't have to use those banked hours to make up for snow days, students get extra instruction time.
School officials insist the additional 10 minutes daily to cover for past snow days can be used as quality instruction time. While conceding that another minute or so added to each class period would be of little value, they maintain that if the full 10 minutes is added to one period, it will make a significant difference over time in that subject.
OK. And all the other subjects in which instruction time has been eroded by snow and ice? How is that time made up?
It would be wrong to pretend that instruction hasn't suffered from the repeated interruptions, the superintendent acknowledges. The harsh winter caused losses in every part of the economy, and schools were no exception. That's life.
What irks is the lack of priority given to school attendance - an attitude that starts with parents. Teachers would rather have an extra 10 minutes a day with attentive students, officials say, than extra days when a third of the class is out on vacation. That so many would miss class rather than a trip betrays a worrying devaluation of education.
What we really should be talking about is how to extend the school year beyond its current length, even without snow days, and how to reduce prolonged breaks that disrupt the rhythm of learning and that require extensive catch-up. The county has been broaching these subjects, but only tentatively and timidly - and still seemingly on the premise that education isn't necessarily the highest priority. It should be.
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