By Joe Vigil
A Jeffco Schools representative announced yesterday that there was a major scheduling mishap involving last week’s spring break.
“We made a bit of a mistake,” said the representative, who spoke on a condition of anonymity. “We decided over winter break that students really didn’t need all that extra time off in March, and we agreed to get rid of spring break altogether.”
However, most school administrators were oblivious to the change and sent students home for a week anyway. “Most administrators thought that we were going to have a spring break just like last year and sent their students home for a week,” continued the representative. He also said that the memo and mass emails Jeffco sent out, the meeting that was held, the in-class announcements by Jeffco representatives, the phone messages home, the commercial during the first quarter of the Super Bowl, the message by President Barrack Obama during the State of the Union address and a last ditch effort where Jeffco School Board President Ken Witt literally sat down with every student, parent, teacher and administrator in the district individually and screamed in their face that there would not be a spring break this year, all regarding the schedule change, were not enough to alert citizens of Jefferson County about the change. “It really was just a lack of communication on our part,” said the representative. “I’m sure we’ll do more to alert everybody next year.”
In response to the miscommunication, Jeffco issued a release on their website stating that the school hours lost last week will have to be made up during the first week of summer vacation. “We really need for that time to be made up somewhere, and the first week of summer is our last chance to do that,” continued the representative. The release also stated that students would be counted as having unexcused absences for six consecutive days and that the pay of teachers and administrator would be docked accordingly. “I mean, we can’t just let everybody get away with this, right?” continued the representative.
Most Jeffco Schools students, parents, teachers and administrators were surprised by the announcement of the makeup requirement but did not seem noticeably upset or bothered by it. “They have to do what they have to do I suppose,” said senior Colin Mulligan while sweeping up hair at his father’s barbershop. “I just wish they would have told us about the spring break thing before now.”
Teachers were also surprisingly docile at the announcement of a pay cut. “This seems fair,” said Stephanie Rossi, vice president of the Jefferson County Educators association. “Teachers are overcompensated quite a bit as it is because they get summers off. This should correct that discrepancy.”
School events such as prom, the state mandated ACT for juniors and all AP tests will continue as previously scheduled. However, graduation for seniors will have to be postponed for a week. “Don’t think seniors are going to get out of this just because they are technically not required to attend high school anymore,” said the representative. When asked to consider the friends and relatives of graduating seniors who had planned around getting in to town for the previous graduation date of May 23, the representative said, “They really should have planned on Jeffco Schools eliminating spring break in the middle of the year, us not being able to relate that information, students and teachers going on break anyway at the end of March and then us issuing a revised schedule that includes moving the date of graduation to May 30. Anything less would have been downright irresponsible.”
All in all, everyone in the Jeffco Schools system seems to be on board with the change of plans. “I knew something was up when that school board guy screamed in my face for a half hour, but I just didn’t know what,” said Mulligan as he finished his third consecutive uneven haircut. “This really is the most fair outcome in my opinion.”
