N.C. school wants to revise schedule for "Mexican Christmas"

Title: N.C. school wants to revise schedule for "Mexican Christmas"
Source: Burlington (N.C.) Times-News
URL Source: http://www.thetimesnews.com
Published: Jan 16, 2008

Students at Cummings High School would start and get out of school about two weeks earlier than others in the Alamance-Burlington School System under a proposed calendar change.

One reason given for the request by Meg Sheehan, one of two co-principals at Cummings, is that “the attendance rate on either side of the (Christmas) holiday is very poor.”

Sheehan said Cummings has “a huge number of kids who travel outside of our country over the holiday.”

She said on Tuesday most of those are students who have family in Mexico. Sheehan said about 30 percent of Cummings’ students are Latino.

She said some students are taking extra days away from school before the start and at the end of the break.

The school is asking for approval for the change from the Alamance-Burlington Board of Education and the state school board.

Shifting the start of the school year by two weeks would allow the school to give exams to students the week before winter break starts in December. Currently, exams are given in January, after students get back from the break.

Sheehan said Tuesday she’s confident students will stay in town for the exams, since they would not want to miss getting credit for their courses.

State law requires school systems to start each academic year no earlier than Aug. 25 unless a waiver is approved by the state.

Tom Manning, chairman of the local school board, may be the most outspoken local opponent of that requirement.

“How are you going to get this waivered,” he asked Monday, before suggesting that Cummings “teach the other high schools how to do this, too.”

“We don’t know if this would pass at the state level,” responded Lillie Cox, the school system’s assistant superintendent of curriculum.

Cox and Sheehan said they hope the school will successfully make a case that the calendar change would be a strategy to improve student performance at Cummings.

In 2006, a judge put Cummings on a list of low-performing schools that were required to make plans for improvement. While Cummings was later removed from the list, Sheehan and co-principal Lynn Briggs said last year the school is still required to share its plans for improvement with the state.

“We’re still being treated as though we’re on the list,” Sheehan told the Times-News in September.

SHEEHAN SAID Monday she and Briggs have already met with par-ents about attendance problems and have had some success.

“We have cracked down on it,” Sheehan said, “and we have seen a decrease.”

The solution hasn’t always been ideal, she said: Some parents have left their children here while they have gone out of the country.

While “no absence is a good ab-sence,” Sheehan said, missing school at the start of a new semes-ter in January would be preferable to the current problem with ab-sences.

Sheehan said Cummings will be providing relevant attendance figures to the school board by Jan. 28, when the board will again discuss the request.

A survey of teachers has found about 68 percent in favor of making the change, Sheehan said Monday, though she added voting is still going on.

Sheehan thinks the change will be beneficial for Cummings across the board. With students taking exams in December, she said, there won’t be the two weeks set aside for review and exams in early January. She thinks students are likely to do better on the exams without the break in between instruction and taking the tests.

Manning noted a school calendar bill will be discussed by state legis-lators this spring. He asked if that were to pass if there would be time to adjust the system-wide calendar for the 2008-09 year.

“It’s doubtful for next year,” Cox said. She said the school system needs to quickly approve a calendar for next year so teachers, students and parents can make plans.

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I always wanted to take my kids on an extended vacation at christmas but their education came first. Have these people lost their minds. What is a co principal. When I was in school it was principal and asst. What this is all about is money low grades = lower pay. This is just another one of those in your face we gonna do it our way.

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Have you noticed, these kids come and go from US to Mexico? and remember the schools do not check if the students are legal.  They only care about "their education."  It would be very interesting is ICE checks these kids prior to departure for their "vacation" in their native country. 

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If they want to have a Mexican Christmas and make their own schedule-guess what- go to Mexico, stay and live there and have it! Idiotic multiculturalist influences at work again.

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Its obvious the words, "for the good of the majority" mean nothing anymore as the majority is fast becoming hispanic.

In the interest of being "politically corrupt" - excuse me, "politically correct", the legal American citizen is now required to give in to the wishes of the "uninvited". If the school system can prove these students are legal citizens, then there would be room for discussion. But you and I know, that ain't gonna' happen.

What motivation is there for our government and school systems to obey the laws of our country? They figure we will all be one giant 3-in-1 nation - US, Canada, Mexico - so let's just wait it out. The problems and questions will become moot. In the meantime, the legal students can just "suck it up".

Also, why do the Mexicans get to have Christmas and our kids only are allowed a winter or holiday break? 

blaze77535 said: I always wanted to take my kids on an extended vacation at christmas but their education came first. Have these people lost their minds. What is a co principal. When I was in school it was principal and asst. What this is all about is money low grades = lower pay. This is just another one of those in your face we gonna do it our way.

 

Yes, I agree with you totally. This is completely whacked.  If we accomodate this group of students, the next group will be the Muslims for Ramadan and on and on.  There is a reason for standards and they should be held to.

If the principals want to live by the Mexican calendar --then---damn it--move to Mexico!!!!!!!!!!

By all means, we MUST cater to the illegals.

Hope someone sent this over to Lou Dobbs !  Glenn Beck also.

Sent it to CNN (send us your story) because I don't know how to send it directly to Lou Dobbs and Glenn Beck. 

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This is America!  Assimilate or get the he** out!  If they have family in Mexico then they can just stay there, register for school, and that would take care of all of their problems!!!