JCPS Board to vote on adding days

If you ask me, students will not get anything out of an extra day in the school system. Believe me, I went through the public school system and am now finishing my undergraduate degree in college. In fact, in my classes this semester, I've had two teachers cancel two days of classes. That's losing one week of the semester in addition to the week you lose for fall and Thanksgiving Breaks.

The only thing that adding an extra day will do is shorten a summer break for students.

The Jefferson County school board Monday night is expected to vote to add two teaching days to the district’s school calendar.

The legislature required districts to add the extra days last spring as a way to lengthen learning time and raise teacher salaries.

District officials are proposing to start the 2007-08 school year day earlier — Aug. 13 instead of the 14 — and move a teacher training day so that Feb. 19th can be used as an instruction day.

I see no point in moving the training day to the 19th. It's just gonna be an off day anyway due to President's Day, a federal holiday. Even if they extended it another day, they'll put in an off day elsewhere so I'd recommend that the board vote against such a measure to extend the school year.