Snow Day

We had an extremely mild winter in North Texas. All in all it was pleasant if you're into warm winters...very few days were near freezing, and those that were pretty much were sunny days. The worry among the locals was that it didn't kill the mosquitos and that should cause some discontent later this summer. I don't know if that's how it works or not but it's at least to urban legend status.

Except for a day in November.

It got all sorts of cold. Rain was most certainly on the way. Roads were going to get slick. Best stay in unless you have to go out. That sort of thing. So, we did. We didn't complain, either. It was nice to get a snow day in November. School was cancelled by the 10PM newscast so everybody could even sleep late. There was much rejoicing in our home.

Turns out it slushed up a bit that day. Especially early in the morning driving was dicey. It cleared up around lunchtime, but hey, I have no trouble with erringo on the side of caution when kids' safety is the issue.

And we knew we'd have to use one of the snow days our district puts into the calendar each year. They have a couple. It's really all we need.

Well, two of those days were around the Easter holiday weekend. A four-day special courtesy of the Lewisville Independent School District. Except now it's only a three-day weekend.

Except now it isn't. Now it's a four-day weekend again.

Our church planned an event that had traditionally been on one day for another day because now it didn't matter what took place on what day because the kids were going to be in school anyway on the day it said "SNOW DAY #1" on the posted calendar.

But we find out a month ago the school board decided to use "SNOW DAY #3" (which is in May AFTER what was the last day of school) instead of "SNOW DAY #1" because they said people might've planned out vacations and such and they didn't want to inconvenience folks.

Ummm...I'm befuddled.

What about a vacation I had planned for after school let out? (hypothetical, but so is theirs) I only have two months to fix that arrangement...and you knew in November when SNOW DAY #1 would be used.

To be honest, I really don't care all that much about this one particular incident. But it represents a pattern of the way the schools around here run things.

I've been notified of meetings to see the sex education presentation that were a mere 48 hours before the showing to my teen.
I've watched field trips be moved three weeks because of some sort of bus snafu.
I've seen parents have to rearrange entire schedules because of scheduling a band concert on a week's notice.
I've seen coaches keep my kid from 4:15PM until 10PM at a track meet, but no one seems to know when it'll be over when you ask beforehand.
I've seen sloppy & shoddy notes sent home that informed me of mandatory meetings in less than a week.
I've seen graduations and proms shift dates after January.

My point is ultimately this: If I ran my work the way the schools around here run, I'd be vilified. In fact, in some cases, I get blamed for being "inflexible" because I don't move something on my schedule because "the school added a jazz ensemble concert and now my kid can't go on the Pine Cove weekend." I mean, c'mon. If I can hand a parent a year-long planning calendar every September and stick to it...

...why can't a school? They're much more consistent year-in and year-out.

But, my kids and I will enjoy our weekend just the same. We just won't in May.