Went to the award ceremony at my son's middle school. Irony: when they call up the students to receive the "Perfect Attendence for the Entire School Year" award, and half of the awardees are absent!

On the flip side, should the school system pay you for this week since there wasn't any instruction going on?

As a longtime teacher disgusted by the wasted time during this last week of school, I have made it a habit to donate my entire weeks pay to a program that engages city youth in positive activities (i.e. swimming, basketball, and tables games). I encourage more teachers to do the same!

I too teach at a Baltimore city High School. Yes the kids are gone after finals, teachers are using this time to pack up rooms, get paper work done, hold meetings and prepare for next year.

I know this past week I have moved myself and two other rooms, broken down a defunct Computer lab and cataloged a ton of books.

So, to the poster that says "should people be paid if there is no instruction going on." Well, people are still doing a lot.

Personally I don't find it that odd that high schools in the city do this. I have always considered the last day of finals the last day of school then this week is the last week for teachers to get their final grades together, etc etc etc.

If we are calling them "regular school days" well that is dumb. Just call them what they are, these are teacher days at the end of the year. I know my school's handbook lists the last day of finals as the last day of school.

I can't wait until similar reports are made in August.

Oh yeah, if/when the tests are pushed to the last days of the calendar are we to allow the test prep intensives to be characterized as a "regular school day" of actual classwork?

snigger.

Stop shutting down the entire system for every "snow event"; shave a day or two off scheduled vacation periods; eliminate a few of the holidays that have schools closed; extend the instructional day in the middle of winter; perhaps even have class on a few Saturdays...

The testing and the instruction can all be accommodated within a September through May calendar time frame and on top of that the call for air conditioning would evaporate as well.

@James From Hampden -
I'm fine with the concept of giving teachers a chance to accomplish much needed work. The problem I have is the mixed signals kids and parents are both hearing.

One of the climate survey questions was "Do you think it's important for your child to attend school every day?" - I'm not sure how this relates to climate, but clearly there's a good parent answer and a bad parent answer. So of the 180 school days in a year, unless you've got a sick kid, they should be in school 180 days or you, as a bad parent, are the reason City Schools fail.

My position has been that I go to work on days where I expect little to be accomplished, because I'm a professional, I take my job seriously and I've made a commitment to work full-time. I try to instill that same attitude towards school in my kids. These mixed messages form City Schools undermine this lesson.

The other message is "Do not come in after finals, teachers have more important things to do." "If you're here after grades are closed, it must because your parents hate you so much, they can't stand you being home and are making you go to school."

I don't care which way the school system wants to deal with these end of year, end of semester, extra because of snow days, school days, but pick one approach and stick with it.

A Parent:

You are right. But I think we are arguing semantics really. I guess the easiest solution is to move the finals back one week city-wide.

As for Mr. Rational, City Schools had ONE snow day this past year, we had two 2-hour delay days and we closed early once. Baltimore City hardly closed for every "snow event."

This is just information getting screwed up as to what these days are. If Alonso wants these to be regular days then he should move finals back one week. Lets face it, after you take a final in college you go home, the class is over.

We just need to clarify what the intent of these days are. Honestly, this issue is a bit of a Red Herring to me. On the list of things we need to worry about these five days wouldn't crack page 10.

I went to school in Harford County, I remember my last weeks were cleaning rooms, turning in books and watching movies.

I know my friend whom teaches in Carroll County did absolutely nothing with these last four-five days of class after his final.

This is a school issue everywhere. Once exams,term papers etc are given, they need to be graded in a meaningful way.Those grades need to be posted.Awards programs, report cards,promotions, retentions, next year's class list and class reorganization all depend on final grades. Obviously that can't all happen on the last day or after students are gone.

I always plan a quick, engaging,mini-unit for my students that is fun, keeps them engaged, and is different than the regular curriculum. I try to make it self-directed so I can get some paper work done. Some students help me sort and clean but believe it or not there is learning there,also. Today I taught a boy how to file.He actually took home some file folders to organize his things.Another girl put some puzzles back together and discovered that there is another Georgia besides our southern state.

I agree with a parent who believes we need to build a work/school ethic.I personally feel we need a couple paid days after students leave to complete the paper work and close down the classroom. As things are now, a teacher's last day is the same day as the kid's last day.

But that is another issue. In what other line of work do employees rountinely pack up their whole career,move or not, and then unpack every nine months?? Such a huge waste of time! We are literally told that everything has to be packed! If my desk and professional resesources were somewhat accessible,I would be more inclined to work a bit at school over the summer.I know cleaning happens but all this packing is a total waste of time and another old time teaching tradition that needs to go. Obviously, if you are changing rooms or schools all this doen not apply.

Back to the original post. There are tons of great activities to do that last week. And all learning should not hinge on grades.

I think the precedent was set long before the kids came to high school. And it is not just the eve of summer that precipitates the absences- it is before almost every holiday on the school calendar. When schools-i.e. leadership & teachers, start to set the expectation that EVERY instructional day is important, then the parents and kids will follow suite. It doesn't take parents and children an awful long time to realize that the instructional pace is tapering off the closer it gets to the holidays. Should I send my child to school so he can help teachers inventory books and run office errands? I don't think so.

I think teachers would maintain instructional focus till the last day if the calendar permitted a week after the kids were gone to do so. Likewise for when the kids are coming back to school. Administrators need to stop filling the first week of school with often useless PD when teachers could be working in their classrooms.

And half days do NOT work for working parents. By the time we get them to school it's time to turn around and come back. So we keep the kids at home or make alternate arrangements for their care. I don't know who is thinking through these calendars but I wish PCAB would voice some of our concerns to people who make the decisions.

My, oh, my! What a mess!! There are so many things that could be done if rational people prevailed when making a school calendar. We could have real work days at the beginning of the school year that allowed teachers to be fully prepared for the students when they come in the door. Gasp--what an original idea! Never gonna happen--why? PD allows principals et al to dictate that teacher work on weekends to get ready for school. I go to school in the summer to get things done and I agree that there is no rational reason to totally pack up each and every room every year. The main reason that we do it is because the system is afraid of theft. We contract cleaners and we contract everything else that needs to be done so we can't secure the buildings. Also, unfortunately, there has been a history of people just walking off with school possessions. While that occurs in other industries as well, schools don't have the resources to replace what might be lost. I get more and more frustrated every year over useless and redundant meetings and rules. If we really want 180 days of instruction, pay teachers for 195 days and schedule the exams on the final days and let students go. Too many outs for people to keep kids home and too many excuses are accepted for such behavior. Yes, it is the end of the year and I am fed up.

Frankly, I have not had a full class of students since Thursday, May 14th with May 15th being a half-day for PTO, and the next week for HSAs. In all honesty, however, my student's attendance has been the worse this year than it has been in the last 10. In my first period class of 37 students, I had 10 with over 100 days absent and about 16 with over 75 days tardy (arriving more than 30 minutes late to school). I agree that this last week was an instructional joke, but honestly, this whole year has been an attendance issue.

School is 180 days long, and teachers work 190 days. The scheduling of exams has to allow for some time to grade, but this week was a little too much. Next year the calendar allows much less, so this appears to be a correction.

On the semi-ridiculous side, this from Roger Shaw:

Dear Principals –

First of all, I would like to thank you for your hard and great work during this school year. I know this is a busy time as you prepare for graduations and end of year tasks.

However, the Secondary Office, as well as the CEO’s office, has received several emails and phone calls from parents that indicate that school staff are telling students not to report to school during the final week. It is our expectation that students will attend school until the final day.

Please ensure that faculty and staff are not encouraging students not to attend school and that students are not being directed home during the school day. I thank you for your assistance and cooperation.

Roger Shaw

This is one of those cover your butt type directives, as in "wink, wink-- we know you won't have students, but let's put on a good show like something will really happen..."

By the way, students who helped inventory books, etc. may have earned valuable service learning hours.

This is one of the big reasons why I am leaving the BCPSS, among other questionable ethical choices by our CEO. We all know that Baltimore City struggles with students attending school, but has logic elluded those who have created this system?

In the school system that I taught in previously (in another state mind you), finals were on the last days of school so that there was optimum instructional time for the students and no down time, with the exception of a day or two for the teachers to correct the final exams and submit grades that were considered in-service days that the students were not made to attend.

If the BCPSS is so concerned about issues such as these and others, why not be consistent with the implementation of something as simple as a school year schedule? There are so many inconsistencies within this system and just when everything starts to work, there is inevitable change on the horizon. What student would want to come to school when things change too often and there is no consistent schedule or routine? What teacher would want to teach when they are being blamed for administration's faults and miscalculations? It's no wonder that the turnover ratio for newer teachers is only a few years. It's too bad that the students and families are the ones suffering with their education simply because the system cannot get their act together and only seems to care about keeping their own pockets filled with riches instead of helping out our poverty-stricken schools and educational system.

i am a teacher in balto county, and the entire last week of school is used for cleaning up classrooms, moving items (some teachers switch classrooms or resign), stacking chairs, etc. we had to turn in our grades by friday, so i knew we wouldn't be "teaching". i don't mind that there are few students to teach, i'd rather have it that way so that i can get my "other" work finished. the last week of school really isn't about instruction. if it were, then we'd spend the next week (with no students) cleaning, stacking chairs, moving items...

I agree that the final exams should move back when there are snow days, and I also believe wholeheartedly that we should not have had even the originally scheduled three school days after final exams. If the school district knows that time is needed for "record-keeping" (the calendar title for these half-days), then teachers should have PD day(s) scheduled after the 180 student days for record-keeping. This could be one day after finals for grading, and one day for packing.

Another concern: in this age of AYP, what does it do to our numbers when almost an entire school (500 out of 520 at mine) is absent for a WEEK? I'll tell you what- at my school no one took attendance, and instead of having a zero attendance week, we had our first week of perfect attendance all year. Pretty shady.

I agree that the final exams should move back when there are snow days, and I also believe wholeheartedly that we should not have had even the originally scheduled three school days after final exams. If the school district knows that time is needed for "record-keeping" (the calendar title for these half-days), then teachers should have PD day(s) scheduled after the 180 student days for record-keeping. This could be one day after finals for grading, and one day for packing.

Another concern: in this age of AYP, what does it do to our numbers when almost an entire school (500 out of 520 at mine) is absent for a WEEK? I'll tell you what- at my school no one took attendance, and instead of having a zero attendance week, we had our first week of perfect attendance all year. Pretty shady.

This discussion is moot -- the 2009-2010 calendar for secondary schools has finals all the way up to the last real day of school -- no more extra days to grade finals, submit grades, pack, debrief (valuable, and no longer possible), prepare for summer programs or next year, inventory, meet with colleagues on School Improvement issues, write a few grants, etc. (all things I did during our last week of school by the way...) Why not a happy medium?!?!

See the new calendar for next year, folks...

Sorry to rain on everyone's ideological parade here, but if you want to change the calendar, contact your local Assembly representative. Ever wondered why all the graduations in the state fall in the first week of June? And how when we have extended the school year, it is always on the front of the year? Just more of the archane logic of a post-war Maryland that still legally allows a 16 year old student to stop attending school, because theoretically they can get a job at one of those factories on the East side, or in Sparrows Point. Oh...you mean those days are gone? Well, then maybe we should revisit that issue.

I teach in the same BCPSS high school as James from Hampden, and I for one relish the days at the end without kids, because I can actually get preparation done for the upcoming year. We pack up our rooms because they might be used for summer school, and the floors must be stripped and waxed.

And as for the current calendar that has already been adopted, well we know how the Morris appointment went over. Nothing is ever final in the City Schools. Sorry, but that's the reality.