It’s enough to make any person jealous. The bad weather is finally breaking, the air warming and the grass greening. And they get two weeks off to enjoy it.Students from throughout the districts have had the last week off and get to warm up the couches for the rest of this week thanks to a ‘five-day district closure’ the districts are testing.This extra time off, eight or nine minutes depending on the grade, is tacked onto the end of the remaining school days.Given the state of the current educational funding system and the fact that Ladysmith’s district alone, is struggling to make up for a further $3 to $4 million getting pulled from the budgets faster than kids can clear a classroom on Friday.OK jealousy aside, this seems like a good way to save some cash, and we’re not just talking a little bit of lunch money here — the district estimates it could save up to $500,000.You can almost hear the parents groaning about what to do with the kids hanging around an extra week, and, given, this can be a real hardship financially for some parents trying to find adequate care for their kids over the extra five days.But at a time our trustees are forced to dig deep in the change drawer just to draw even, this seems like a better solution than taking resources out of the classrooms. So as strange as it seems, a good way to keep teachers in the classroom, is to keep kids out of them.Hopefully, there is some good feedback provided from this trial time off and school administration, teachers, parents and, of course, the students can adapt the plan to make it work for everyone.
— The Chronicle