School District Error Means 34 Days Less Summer Vacation
Students at two elementary schools in San Bernardino, California, exceeded the number of required minutes to be in school. So they're off on summer vacation, right? Wrong. Instead, they have 34 more days of school. Instead of getting out on in the middle of June, they're supposed to stay until the end of July.
How did this happen? Rolling Ridge Elementary in Chino Hills and Dickson Elementary in Chino had shorter days on Fridays just like many elementary schools in California. This gave teachers time to plan, meet with parents, etc. But it ends up that state law requires these days to be 180 minutes long. Due to a spreadsheet error, these days were only 175 minutes at Dickson and 170 at Rolling Ridge.
The logical among us might say, "So what? They exceeded the minimum number of minutes for the school year. What difference does it make what days those were on?" But the logical among us are likely not bureaucrats and legislators.
If the schools don't make up the supposedly missing time, the school district could lose $7 million. The still logical among us might figure the total amount of time those minimum days were short as a total of 170 minutes at Rolling Ridge, and 340 minutes at Dickson. One or two additional days could make up that time.
But no. According to the law, if you're short on the time for a particular day, even if it's just a few minutes, that day doesn't count. So being short a few minutes for 34 days, even though your total minutes exceeds the state requirement, means those 34 days don't count at all.
What's wrong with this logic? Let's apply this to another situation. Let's say you work for a company that pays you $15 an hour. You're expected to be at work 40 hours a week for 50 weeks, for a total of 2000 hours in a year. For this, your gross payment will be $30,000. One year you actually worked 2020 hours, but only expect to get paid for your scheduled 2000. But someone figures out that, even though you worked more hours than you were paid for, you came in five minutes late on every Monday. So those 50 Mondays don't count at all, and the company takes back $6000.
Hopefully, the legislature will fix this. If not, we should keep track of every day they show up late.
See an article at http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-summer16-2009jun16,0,2614495.story?track=mostemailedlink
Comments
I think those legislators need to go back to school so they can learn how to add.
Posted by: Mary Contrary | June 18, 2009 07:33 AM
Must we punish the children for the mistakes of the adults? And it punishes parents and their families too who have planned vacations. If they've done the time, don't make them pay for someone else's error and a misguided law.
Posted by: TawTew the Naturally Perfumed | June 18, 2009 07:07 PM
Why do we let children out of school anyway? Keep them there, seven days a week, 364 days a year. We can let them go home for Christmas.
Posted by: Rev. Bootie | June 20, 2009 06:33 PM
So they don't have any time to make up, and even if they did it would be one or two days. But they have to serve 34 more days?
This is worse than the criminal justice system. Somebody needs to lock up the legislators until they fix this idiocy.
Posted by: Mad Greg | June 21, 2009 04:19 AM
That's America for you. Punish the children for the sins of the fathers.
Posted by: Maxine | June 21, 2009 01:30 PM
Kids have been paying for the mistakes of the adults since Adam and Eve. Let them find out early that this is a messed up world. No I'm being sarcastic. I really hope they don't lose half of their Summer Vacation.
Posted by: Vernon Avaritt | June 22, 2009 05:27 PM
Have they fixed this?
Posted by: Maria Windsong | June 23, 2009 12:28 AM
The problem is the legislature, which is far away and knows little about schools, is making the decisions. Decisions should be in the hands of those who know best what happens in schools, the teachers. Lawmakers can't be an expert on everything, and as cases like this show, often aren't even experts on making laws.
Posted by: Francine the One | June 23, 2009 12:03 PM
Lawmakers are mostly attorneys, right? Didn't Shakespeare write, "First thing we do is kill all the lawyers?"
(Considering that a blogger is currently being investigated for comments that seem to be in support of killing legally-innocent people, we would like to clarify this quote.
The quote is actually "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers." This appears in William Shakespeare's play, "King Henry VI, Part 2." The quote is made by Dick in response to a comment by the revolt leader Jack Cade who wants to get rid of those in authority so he can take over. In the play, Dick makes sarcastic comments that pretend to be in support of the unsympathetically-portrayed Cade. The comments were not intended to be taken seriously, and were likely laughed at by the audience. No one should take them seriously here, either.
For those who think that spelling this out is unnecessary, reread our post here and see if sometimes things that should be obvious aren't.)
Posted by: Fran the Sham | June 24, 2009 05:06 PM