I just looked at the school calendar, and it sure looks like the kids are out a long time. They don't actually go back to school until the 10 th of January. That is twelve continual days out of class, not counting weekends. Then they go back for four days and are out again for MLK Day.

It does appear it was designed with something in mind other than the kids and their education, considering they had a full week out at Thanksgiving.

Doing some calculation, I find that the school year encompasses a total of 204 weekdays. All those days and the kids only go to classes 178 days, or a little over 87% of those days. They are out of school a whopping 26 of the 204 days. Even if we strip out the regular holidays, which this year are only Labor Day, Thanksgiving and MLK Day,(the others all fall on the weekend)  they are still out 23 days.  That equates to 4 ½ weeks vacation, in addition to the 11 ½ weeks during the summer, for grand total of 16 weeks vacation.

Why do I point out all this?  Simply because this is the calendar that the teachers and many parents are claiming does not give them enough time to ”recharge”, (whatever that means). Come on folks, 16 weeks out of 52, you are off.  Over 30% of the time, you do not work.   That does not even count the 104 weekend days.

Many teachers, administrators and parents are fighting, tooth and nail, to add another two weeks to the “off time”. 

It is time to nip this in the bud. It is no longer about the kids. It is strictly to accommodate the wishes of a particular group, the members of which will not be satisfied until we have year round school inCobbCounty, without regard to its effect on the quality of education our children receive.

As has been pointed out, what we have now is not a traditional calendar, it is a compromise.  Were it a traditional calendar, classes would not start until the Tuesday following Labor Day.

Regardless of what recommendations come from the ill-advised and highly “salted” calendar committee, a majority of voters in 4 of the 7 posts favor the traditional calendar.  If the officials they elected to get that calendar reinstated were to flip-flop, it would not bode well for any of them.

We are sure they know that they are there to represent their constituents, not Dr. Hinojosa, not the teachers, not other parents and certainly not this inane calendar committee.

Hiding behind the calendar committee to justify giving in to the pressure would not get the job done.  We know they will stand tall and be counted.