THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 23, 1996 TAG: 9603230242
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALETA PAYNE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Long : 102 lines
Gordon Marx has missed three days from school this year - all for Jewish holidays. Today he'll miss a fourth, so he can attend worship services with his family at Temple Emanuel.
Howard Marx made the choice for sons Gordon, an eighth-grader at Kemps Landing Magnet School, and Robert, a sixth-grader at Kemps Landing, on whether they would attend temple or classes today, as students across the Beach make up for a snow day.
The boys say they understand his reasons.
``I feel that religion is more important,'' 11-year-old Robert said.
``I think it's a pretty stupid idea to have people have to choose between their religious responsibility and their educational responsibility,'' said Gordon, 13.
Schools across Hampton Roads and the state have struggled with how to make up the many instructional days lost to Old Man Winter in January and February. In Suffolk, Chesapeake and Virginia Beach, Saturday classes are being used to make up lost days.
While all of the remedies suggested have been criticized, Saturday school has created a special dilemma in Virginia Beach, where, according to the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater, more than half the area's Jews live.
Superintendent Timothy R. Jenney reviewed the make-up schedule, which was in place when he arrived last month, and decided not to change it.
The schedule included classes today and on Memorial Day, but the district had little flexibility when coming up with the make-up days, none of which was popular, Jenney said. Any changes would inevitably have angered other people.
``In effect, you trade one group of disgruntled people for another group of disgruntled people,'' he said.
``Looking at the big picture, (Saturday school) was not a desirable option, but it was all we had left given the circumstances.''
Absences for religious reasons will not be counted against students, he said.
For Dr. Morris Elstein, whose two sons attend Lynnhaven Middle School, there was ``no decision at all.'' One son will attend Congregation Beth El with a friend. Another will attend a bar mitzvah at Temple Emanuel with his family.
``This was planned long before a snow day,'' Elstein said.
He said he worried about students facing a six-day week without a sufficient break ``for mental health and for spiritual health.''
Others wonder if the students who do show up will do much work.
Jenney said the plan was for students to learn as usual. ``We certainly hope the integrity of the instructional day will be there,'' he said.
At Cox High School, principal Perry B. Pope said it would be a ``regular school day,'' although there were concerns about the possibility of high absenteeism, particularly because some students will be taking the Scholastic Assessment Test or attending school-sponsored events - ``things that normally are done on Saturday so you wouldn't miss school.'' Under district policy, students are not penalized for absences caused by school-sponsored events.
Rather than tackle new material, teachers will try to focus on lessons that go beyond the classes' goals.
``We're just going to do the best job we can,'' Pope said.
At First Colonial High School, a fund-raiser to collect money for a student ill with cancer had been scheduled before the snow day was chosen.
Principal Stephan B. Charton said some students will help with booths while others will be allowed to attend the giant yard and bake sales planned to help pay the medical bills of 18-year-old Jason DeGutis. The sales are to run from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., and teachers will bring their students out for 20-minute blocks of time, Charton said.
``We will have regular classes going on,'' Charton said.
``We've told kids we're taking attendance.''
Rabbi Arthur Ruberg, president of the Hampton Roads Board of Rabbis, said he appreciated the consideration given to the Jewish community's request that classes not be held on Saturday, even if that request could not be honored. But he worries that Saturdays will be looked to in the future if needed.
``I hope this is not a precedent - that it's a one-time occurrence they could not get out of,'' he said. ``It's clear our preference is what Norfolk has done, and that is not have to make the choice'' between temple and the classroom.
For Robert Marx, students who do make the choice to miss classes for religious reasons should attend their house of worship.
Otherwise, he said, ``it's like cheating God.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
MOTOYA NAKAMURA
The Virginian-Pilot
Howard Marx, center, said his sons, Gordon, 13, left, and Robert,
11, will be at worship services at Temple Emanuel today, not in
class at Kemps Landing Magnet School. ``They'll make up for that
later,'' Marx said.
MOTOYA NAKAMURA
The Virginian-Pilot
Gordon Marx, 13, and his brother, Robert, 11, say they agree with
their father's decision that the boys should go to temple today,
instead of classes at Kemps Landing Magnet School. ``I feel that
religion is more important,'' Robert said.
by CNB