With some parents enraged over the Cumberland County Board of Education’s decision to add one hour to the school day for 13 days following Spring Break as make up days, some are wondering if there is any way to get the board to change their decision.  The answer – probably not.

Some parents are particularly upset that the BOE had offered everyone a chance to vote on this school year’s calendar two years ago which stated any make up snow days would be added to the end of the year and yet did not give the parents the same option of voting on the possibility of changing that plan – which the BOE did change at the recent meeting.

We spoke with Superintendent of Schools Donald Andrews today who told us that the BOE was considering the academic impact of not placing the make-up days at the end of the school year so the students would benefit from getting the instructional time in before TCAP tests were given.    Adding the make up days to the end of the year would offer no advantage at all to students needing more test preparation given that there had been too many missed school days due to the winter storms taking away much needed class time.   There was an option of using two days of Spring Break but that was opposed by many parents who had planned vacations.

An online petition is nearing 1,000 signatures thus far since it was posted on Facebook last night urging parents to request the BOE change back to the ‘end of year’ make up days plan citing:

“Adding this extra hour every day would mean some children would not get off the school bus until 5 or 6pm! These kids are already exhausted and starving after a normal school day, to add this extra hour will leave them physically and mentally drained. A college level student or adult doesn’t even attend classes for 11 or 12 hours a day simply because the brain fatigues and cannot process information after a certain point so thinking this will help with extra study time for the testing coming up is just outrageous! Behavior issues during school and on the bus will dramatically increase, after school activities and sports will be affected, and some of the high school students have jobs to support their families/ local businesses which will cause them to lose actual money that some simply cannot afford to lose.”

CNF has learned some parents are planning on attending a BOE Work Session tonight to voice their opinion in hopes the BOE will reverse the vote for the extended days.   Mr. Andrews confirmed there is a BOE work session scheduled for tonight but that the Board cannot vote in a work session nor is this matter on the agenda.   Mr. Andrews did tell us that petitions are always accepted and considered for any issues concerning parents and students.  Should the BOE want to discuss the petition however, it would require a special called meeting of the BOE very soon.

105.7 News reported today that BOE Chair Dan Schlafer explained to them that school board meetings are always open to the public, calendar options were posted on the school system’s website several days before the meeting and that all e-mail addresses and phone numbers of board members are public record. He went on to say that the best time for anyone to voice an opinion on any issue is before a decision is made and not after.