Making an Effort

Hope everyone is warm & safe.  Refuah Shelemiah to anyone who was hurt in the storm and our electrical grid should make a speedy recovery as well.

I think all of the local area schools did their best to open as quickly as possible as soon as electricity was available and it was safe to do so.  They also mostly used email, facebook, texting to keep all of the parents informed and many of them opened up to parents who needed electricity.  Many also opened before the local public schools did. BPY opened on Thursday when most of Paramus was still in the dark.  SAR in Riverdale moved quickly to find space in local shuls to have classes.

But they really need to make up the days missed.  I'm glad they all cancelled the wasteful teacher training day scheduled for election day (tomorrow) but it still doesn't cover the 4 or 5 days missed.  Usually there are 2 days alloted for snow emergency days but they might still be needed for the winter.

I think they can get rid of the Chanukah day, New Year's, the Thursday before Yeshiva Week, Erev shavuot, teacher in-service & day have school until the last Monday in June.  Thoughts?

[UPDATE: As reported by NBC New York:

New York City public school students who got an unexpected break because of Sandy will be seeing their winter break in February cut to make up for it.

City officials announced Monday that the last three days of that week, February 20-22, will be full school days instead of vacation days. Another half-day in June will now be a full class day as well.]