Saturday's Internet Edition, May 17, 2008.
|
At their June 4 meeting, school board members voted on the 2007-08 school calendar, in which students are given at least one day off or early release in all months except May. Instead, students are given March 24, the day after Easter, in lieu of Memorial Day, which will fall on May 26.
One board member, Linda Barnette, said via email earlier this week, “So many people have written and called about the fact that Memorial Day was not a holiday that the board is considering making Dec. 21 a student day and Memorial Day a professional day for the upcoming school year. We have not voted on this yet, and I cannot speak for the board, but I think what I said will happen.”
Candy Poplin, executive director of human resources, said, “That’s Linda’s idea. Nothing has been done about it yet.”
The board may revisit the issue at their July 2 meeting, she said.
Davie is the only school system that would not be out on Memorial Day; Winston-Salem/Forsyth County, Yadkinville, Iredell-Statesville, Rowan and Davidson County school calendars all show that day as a holiday.
Prior to recent events, Poplin said, “Changing Memorial Day to a teacher workday means that End of Grade Testing would have to be moved up a week. The negative to this is that students would have five less days of instruction before EOGs. [If the calendar changed,] students would have to take EOGs following a long weekend, which is not in the best interest of most students. There would have to be several other adjustments made to the calendar. We are looking at this from an educational perspective.”
Only one board member, Carl Lambert, voted against students attending school on Memorial Day.
Poplin said the calendar had been planned two years ago. The board did request that in the planning for ... subsribe to the Davie County Enterprise Record, P.O. Box 99, Mocksville, N.C. 27028.