Thornapple Kellogg Schools Board of Education

Minimum Student Days Speech

Delivered Monday, June 21, 2004

Hello. My name is Aaron Wissner. My wife and I live on Rita Drive just off of Bass Road. My neighbors and many of my friends have students in school here. I myself teach middle school students in over in Wayland.

I am here to draw attention to an issue of concern ,not only to the board but also the students, parents and community. The issue is the possible elimination of an entire week of student days this coming school year.

Five days of school is a huge amount to take away from the students. As a teacher, I would like to share a few of the negative impacts.

First and foremost, students will learn less. Less school days mean less lessons. Less lessons mean less learning. Imagine if your daughter missed a week of school due to illness, but was never allowed to find out what she missed. What new words would she fail to learn? What math problems would now be a struggle? What concepts would the she simply never have a chance to think about? Sometimes less is simply less.

The remedy that is often suggested is adding a few minutes to the school day to make up for the missed time. To make up for five less days of school, about 10 minutes would have to be added to each remaining day. That would lengthen each class by about two minutes.

So does two minutes improve things? Rarely and barely. Classes have a way of filling the time allotted to them. A teacher might be able to answer one or two more questions, but in the big scheme of things, it’s nothing compared to having one more week of school.

Five days is a huge, big deal. Imagine a student being told that the one week summer camp they’d been looking forward to all year had been cancelled. Students learn a lot in only five days.

The students who will be hit the hardest are the ones who need more days the most. Those are the students in the bottom half of the class. These kids need more days to learn new material.

Kids who were already struggling are going to fall farther behind. More students will need more help. More students will be referred for costly special education services. More students will be on the list for possible retentions. Parents will be faced with upset children who have a greater stuggle in school.

This reduction in five days is a hardship for parents as well. They will have to pay for a week of child care they never anticipated. This will effect many parents in their pocketbooks.

Less days is not better for kids. It’s counter intutitive to say so. In fact, the only evidence out there is that MORE days are better for kids.

I urge you to make an official resolution right now. Please resolve to always offer all students at least 180 full days of school every year. This is one of the most meaningful resolutions a board of education could ever make for its students, parents and community.

Thank you for your time and for serving on our board of education. If you have any questions, I would be happy to answer them.