Wednesday, September 24, 2008

HOT OFF THE PRESS: POLL SHOWS NC CITIZENS OVERWHELMINGLY SUPPORT AUGUST 25th SCHOOL START DATE

A must see!! This poll, conducted by the well-respected Public Policy Polling firm, has pertinent questions concerning school start dates and summers. Here's one example:

 

Q2 If you had a choice between starting the school

year in late July-early August or starting it in

late August, which do you think would be the

better choice? If you think it’s better to start the

school year in late July-early August, press 1. If

you think it’s better to start the school year in

late August, press 2.

 

80% Late August..........  

20% Late July/Early August...................

 

PPP states that support is evident across all demographic subgroups, including race, gender, political party, region, age, and whether or not the respondent had school-aged children. Check out the entire poll here:

http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/pdf/SchoolCalendarMemo1.pdf

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

CAUTIOUSLY OPTIMISTIC

Do we dare start applauding? At yesterday's Wake County School Board meeting, it seems that members decided to at least consider the possibility of converting a few mandatory year-round schools back to traditional, and to revisit the plan to open all new schools as MYR. This comes after actual enrollment figures have been way off base - much lower - than projected. I'm not holding my breath, but I'm going to speak out strongly in support of these changes. I hope you will do the same!! Check out the media links below for more details.

My favorite quote is from Lori Millberg: " 'Our planning has assumed that every new school would be year-round, which means an increasingly large percentage of Wake Schools would be year-round. And we're not sure that's what families want,' School Board member Lori Millberg said." (emphasis added by me).

 

http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=6395265

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1221657.html