Councilman Larry Dodd Posted This...

Larry Dodd, Wicomico County Councilman
10 hrs ·

***Here's a heads up in case you haven't been paying attention!***

I just happened to see the Tweet by accident. "The Wicomico Board of Ed adopted a draft 2018-2019 school calendar on 1st reading, and welcomes input prior to 2nd and final reading at the Jan. 9 Board meeting." This is going to affect parents of kids more than anything. You might want to go back and check the days off to make sure agree with them. I checked the Professional Days off on the proposed calendar and there is one date that I totally disagree with.

April 4, 2019 Professional Day - Schools closed for students

If you check your calendar that Professional Day is on a Thursday. So that means kids will go to school M, T, W and off Thursday. Then they have to wake up early and go back to school on Friday and then they have the weekend off. That means the Wicomico County Board of Education is stealing a long weekend from you. The other Professional Days appear to be on a Monday or a Friday giving parents a long weekend with their kids. I'm sure many parents would prefer to take their kids to Busch Gardens/Colonial Williamsburg or another location on that weekend.

I served on the Board of Ed for 5 years and my last 2 years the Central Office tried to sneak in a couple of midweek professional days because they don't want their teachers going away on those long weekends. Those Professional Days are granted to the Teachers by negotiation and they are not required to attend a PD on every day. Essentially what the Board of Education is doing is penalizing the families and not the teachers. I encourage each and every one of you parents that don't agree with this Professional Day to contact the BOE or they will adopt this calendar. I and another Board Member who had kids in the school system fought this when the Central Office tried it before and it didn't pass. There were hundreds of emails and people who came to the BOE Meeting to speak out against it. The current Board Members do not have children in the school system so it doesn't make a difference to them. Please don't let it pass this time. I would encourage you to send emails to the BOE, Bd Secretary and to "Comments." They can all be included in one email to all. Please contact your friends to let them know about this. Don't penalize the families! If they don't hear from you they will pass the calendar. Demand they change the Thursday. April 4th Professional Day to Friday, April 5, 2019. They can't say they can't because nothing is on the calendar for that day and it hasn't been approved yet.

dfitzger@wcboe.org - Don Fitzgeral, Board President
gmalone@wcboe.org - Gene Malone, Vice President
abrown@wcboe.org - Allen Brown
jpalmer@wcboe.org - John Palmer
mwaller@wcboe.org - Maria Waller
mmurray@wcboe.org - Michael Murray
bturner@wcboe.org - Bill Turner
mvestal@wcboe.org - Monique Vestal, Board Secretary
comments@wcboe.org - Comments

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