As I write this article, I sit surrounded by only five other humans, teacher included. The 50 computers lining the room are empty and only one in ten students bothered themselves with attending school today.
This strange phenomenon was caused by the late reinstatement of May 24 as a regular school rather than a furlough day. On the surface, this reinstatement sounds quite positive. It symbolizes better times financially for the district, as they could now afford to pay teachers for this extra day, but the execution of the reinstatement was lacking.
Their fatal error came from the perceived “optional attendance” policy. Not to endanger students’ possibly pre-booked vacation plans for the four (now three) day weekend, the district decided it would consider all absences excused. However, given innate teenage gossip, the rumor spread and swelled malignantly until it became an “optional day” where absence would not be penalized at all and no work would be assigned to students.
This would, in turn, change from rumor to complete fact due to the lack of dismissal from officials as well as teachers and peers.
The problem is not so much in the lacking attendance but the reason behind it. We’ve had this day before on December 21, when attendance was equally lacking for a number of reasons.
The real problem is the subtle irony of the situation. Today, I watched two movies along with three “do whatever” periods. It is understandable given the circumstance, but we forget the purpose of the reinstatement of this fateful day. Remember reinstating the furlough day means teachers would be paid today, but to what end? It does not take a credentialed teacher to put in a DVD and let kids play Temple Run for 55 minutes. So, in reality, the day’s reinstatement proved completely null– paying teachers for doing nothing by the fault of promoting truancy.
No one group is completely at fault. Students, I know you are not all on vacation. I’ve seen your beach snapchats. Teachers, show no mercy! You don’t have to keep those who are uninterested in learning comfortable. School district, it is absolutely wonderful our finances improved this year and furlough days are quite the stigma, but your hasty reinstatement actually just rolled you back down the ditch.
The best way to prevent future “apocalypse days” at CHS? More pragmatism and less rashness in financial decisions. Another day of school with only thee weeks left is the exact opposite of what students want. Today would have been better spent as a teacher-only day, days which were also cut by furlough days. Teachers would earn their money planning and prepping for finals, rather than keeping control of four apathetic students in a class. I try to empathize with the internal strife in the district, but perhaps lumping up the good fortune and saving it for next year would not destroy the world.
