Tri-Board Votes To Cancel February Vacation

Winter recess has been rescinded.

For Redding and Easton school children, Feb. 22 through Feb. 25 will be spent behind a desk.

Eight snow days and a combination of four delayed openings and early dismissals, in conjunction with the regular off-days of Martin Luther King Day and a development day, have disrupted instruction enough to strip back February’s five-day vacation. The decision came Monday night during a tri-board meeting of .

Redding and Easton passed votes unanimously, while Region 9 had one dissenter, Thomas Logie. While each three boards voted independently, the 20 of the 21 persons present voted to remove February’s vacation. The meeting was held in the gymnasium at .

There were four options to choose from: withdrawal of April’s vacation, removal of February’s, a combination of days from each vacation or an extension of the school year until June 30.  

A lengthy debate with no clear winner

At the beginning of the meeting, each member of the 21-person tri-board was given a chance to state a case for what they viewed as the best option — and for those who did wish to take time to speak, no more than a handful agreed on any one option.

The disunion was echoed throughout the audience, for when board member Margot Abrams, after the tri-board’s testimonies, suggested that the audience cast a quick, informal hand-raise on what it saw as the best option, no option was seen as best.

“If a parent has made a large travel-related activity, they are probably going to pull their children out of school,” Logie said, adding he supported the extension of the school year.

Other board opinions varied widely. There were concerns that April’s vacation should not be touched because many students use that week for college visitations. Likewise, February vacation was seen as an important recuperation period for students, many of whom become afflicted with cold and flu during the icy month. The extension into June 30 was seen as detrimental for teachers and students due to the heat.

“Teachers struggle to teach in that [late June] environment,” said Kathleen Joyce-Kirk, a member of the Redding board. “I would whole-heartedly support option one [elimination of Feb vacation] as the least bad of the bad."

Superintendent Michael Cicchetti reluctantly supported the February option. “If there are no additional snow days, which I doubt would be the case, I support option one.”

“I’m concerned that we’ve lost our momentum, yet there could be additional snow,” said Cichetti. Cichetti added that they could make "any option work."

Mark Lewis, Region 9's chair who headed the tri-board meeting, proposed a fifth option — one that took from Feb’s and April’s vacations and added a day or two to the end of the calendar.

The public speaks

Redding resident Cindy Roar, who identified herself as the co-president of the Redding Parent Teacher Association, voiced opposition to taking away from April’s vacation. “Twenty-eight of the teachers have non-refundable vacations of April. Most teachers planned for days at the end of the school year,” she said.

Pam Sherman, also from Redding, noted that that much of the staff and administration “were impacted by ,” and voiced her support for doing away with April’s vacation.

Nancy Cohen from Easton stated that April was too important of a month for college visitations.

Kathleen Weiss of Redding was wary of what February had in store. “If another nor’easter comes up, we’ll kind of dig ourselves a deeper hole. Maybe the thing to do is let it ride for right now,” she said.

Another woman from Redding supported a combination of vacation days removed. “[I’m] discouraged that you held a professional day,” she said.

Mike D’Augistino, from Redding, stated that “germs stewing around in February are disinfected during that [month’s] break.”

Redding Board of Education not in tune with its public?

Jennifer Carello, a Redding resident, criticized the board for what she saw as not being in touch with the public. “[This is] too important [an issue] to guesstimate what the answer is,” she said.

Carello was aggravated at what she saw as a “technical issue concerning Redding’s board’s inability to post their email addresses online,” and strongly stated that the board should take to Facebook, Twitter and other social media outlets before deciding on matters such as the one at hand.

"This is the first time I’m hearing these options,” said Carello.

(After the board broke for a ten minute discussion recess, Carello’s was praised by a few members of the audience, indicating that others held issue with Redding’s communication shortages. As of this writing, the Redding Board of Education does not have its individual member’s email addresses listed on the er9.org website.)

Another Redding resident, Chris Nolan, echoed Carello’s complaints, stating that “I look at the website sometimes and see outdated material, and I wonder if that can’t be updated.”

Final Decisions

When audience members had finished speaking, the tri-board recessed to discuss. Upon returning, motion to go with the February option was placed and seconded. Redding’s and Easton’s boards came to a unanimous decision in favor of the motion, while Region 9’s board was split. Without all three boards in agreement, the motion could not pass.

“We don’t know the implications of our vote [to the taxpayer] are going to be,” said Logie. “If we don’t know the answer to that, how can we vote?”

Region 9’s Treasurer Chris Hocker disagreed. “The board needs to get an answer…[it] should get things done,” he said.

“At the end of the day, education is our business,” Hocker said.

The tri-board recessed for another discussion, and when it returned, the motion was passed quickly, with only Logie still in dissension.  

If there are more snow days in February, the tri-board will  have to meet again for additional action.

CAPT and CMT testing dates will remain unchanged. The current last days of school are as follows: Region 9: Friday, June 17; Redding: Monday, June 20; Easton: Tuesday, June 21.