Hillsborough schools brace for Good Friday

Schools across Hillsborough County are trying to assure parents and students that Friday will be a normal school day, even though large numbers of teachers and bus drivers are taking the day off.

To be sure, Friday's normal has many caveats. A number of bus routes will be canceled, and others running late, because roughly 20 percent of bus drivers plan to be absent. Parents will have the option of dropping children off at every school as early as 6 a.m. -- and leaving them there until 6 p.m.

Schools are also making plans to cover for large numbers of absent teachers, potentially three times as many as usual on a Friday. But the situation varies greatly by school, with some schools expecting few to zero absent instructors and others potentially operating without half of their teaching force.

That doesn't mean children without religious obligations should just stay home, school official say.

"Absolutely, we want kids to come to school," school spokeswoman Linda Cobbe said. "It's a school day. We're going to conduct school in every school. We're going to have learning. Teachers should be leaving lesson plans, and the subs will carry them out."

This year marks the first time in years that Hillsborough has held classes on Good Friday, following a controversial move to adopt an academic calendar that does not recognize any religious holidays. But the decision long has been mired in culture war debates, with some now saying that people are trying to send a message by taking the day off. For more on how this happened, read today's story here.

Reports of absences may be exaggerated. At Madison Middle, for example, school officials surveyed teachers at the beginning of the week to plan for the worst-case scenario. They reported to the district that as many as 35 out of 57 teachers were thinking about taking Good Friday off, an alarming number that quickly was reported throughout the media. But school officials say that's far from reality.

The school should have 9 teachers absent Friday, and substitutes are coming for seven of them.

"We're anticipating a normal school day tomorrow," Madison assistant principal Ken Hart said. "Our teachers will meet their professional obligations and do the right thing."

***UPDATE****

Pierce Middle expects 19 out of 68 teachers to be absent, not the 34 teachers initially reported.

All bus runs have been cancelled at Martinez Middle.

See a list of potential elementary school teacher absences.

See a list of potential middle school teacher absences.

See a list of potential high school teacher absences.

See a list of bus service by school.

Comments

[Jani]

Having ANY School open on GOOD FRIDAY is an outrage. Good Friday was the day that CHRIST died on the cross and it is a day that must be adhered to. To many people either come to this country and make demands, or others take things like this to court to say they are offended by the Christian faith.

Well I am OFFENDED by narrow minded people who have no clue what is to come on Judgement day. This is egregious and it is just one more attempt for our corrupt unprincipled government to interfere with our rights. If my sons were still in school, trust me they would NOT be attending. In fact, I would take them out of school but not before I had my say. Stay tune a sermon is coming!

[Steve]

The reason why some parents think of the school as daycare is because that is what the teachers want it to be. They are always worried about what we are not doing at home rather than actually teaching the students academics.

[Danielle]

This is a sad commentary of our time. What other country changes their national language, their customs, their holidays (religious or otherwise) to suite the whim of illegal or legal aliens in their country? And I know of NO country that has changed their currency design to accommodate the newly arrived immigrant, legal or otherwise. They left their country because they didn't like it, but they now want to turn our country into their country without the mess they made of their own. People what make you think that these people have so radically changed their way of thinking and behavior to adopt to a less fanatical behavior by geographic relocation?
Good Grief Charlie Brown!
Have we lost our minds along with out patriotism? Or are the parents that have to go to work and that use the school system as a babysitter, just being selfish. And please, do not bring up the suffering of our children for not having attended one day of school as an academic loss. How are they going to feel when they loose Christmas! That is a religious holiday directly associated with Easter, if they have forgotten that. Yes, it can happen, this is a snowball now, but there'll be now stopping it when it gets bigger and gains momentum.
Politicians are so crooked they all have to screw their shoes on and I'm a voting Republican. Lesser of the two evils. Think about and be careful who you choose.
And those people that are protesting the wars and defense of our way of life and liberties are giving them up with every protest. If we don't defend our country and way of life, our country will look like the waring nations but on our soil. Is anyone prepared for that. Is 9-11 that much of a distant memory? Without exaggeration, our entire country can look like that one block on a daily basis (just like the country they came from) with only the hierarchy living comfortably. Where only the wealthy have the power to protect them selves and have the aesthetic comforts. Then how are you going to feel about the military personnel that have lost their lives.
Do not let those who have given their life in the defense of this country be for nothing.
I'll get off my soap box, now. Thanks for the opportunity to vent.
By the way I am a United States Navy Veteran. The people that are actually face to face on the ground with the enemy fighting this war, have my highest regards and thanks.

[me]

Finally seeing that Pasco planned better with a teacher planning day and end of quarter, no school for students.

That's a first!

No subs needed, no bus drivers needed,
people can take religious holiday without extra chaos to system.

[Timmy!]

Even the Wall Street "heathens" (humor) have taken the day off.

It's a time of reflection (12-3PM).

Get the background and gain some understanding.

Opps gotta go. Later.

[No Way]

The attitudes of the school board and some of the general public sadden me. Apparently they see teachers not humans with their own beliefs and concerns, but a commodity to be demanded at all times. I chose education thinking I would be a person who could make a positive impact on my society, not an automaton marching to the orders of an out-of-touch school board. I have since found that this is not the case. So many non-teachers say to “grow up” and “join the real world,” by which they mean, “Shut up and take it.” I’ll do them one better – not complain while joining the real world. Do I think the business world will be better? No, I’m not idealistic. While I will certainly miss teaching, it will be nice finally to have the right to an opinion and a religion.

[Julia]

This is so weird.Pinellas quit having GF when I was in HS back in 91!I remember back then, people made a fuss.Now people are used to it.No one has even mentioned it here in Pinellas.All the kids showed up.I am a Christian and will be attending services this evening.Most churches do have an evening service.I don't know of anyone that has GF off of work either.If it is important to you, pick your kids up early to go to services, like my sister is.No one will mind if you hold them out.There just doesn't need to be a day off for everyone imo. Separation of church and state.90% of these kids won't go to services anyway-it's just an excuse to have the day off.Good for you Pam not letting your daughter stay home unless she went to the services.My mom did the same thing to me in HS and I did go to services.

[Pam]

My daughter's high school also gave a free pass to all kids wanting to take a "religious" holiday. She, too, wanted to take the day off without penalty. I told her that I would be happy to call in an excused assence for her IF SHE REALLY INTENDED to attend her Catholic church service during school hours on Good Friday. I was ok with her staying home from school, but I refused to lie about the reason, especially for a supposed spiritual purpose.
Rather than become a hypocrite, my daughter choose to attend an absolutely worthless day of school. She will be sitting in near-empty classrooms with a handful of Jewish and Taoist kids and a few whose folks both work.
I'm proud of her decision. She at least has the courage of her convictions. The school disrtict does not.
While I support BONA FIDE religious accommodation, such is not the case today for most of the high school kids taking a beach day. The District could have handled this "holiday" much differently, but instead will use the data gathered from today's debacle to justify re-establishing Good Friday as a day off. I resent the manipulation, as well as the waste of time and money this has created.

[Vince]

At my high school, the administration made the announcement that if you are absent, it doesn't count! Teachers will use this as a prep day since we will be pooling all the kids together and showing a movie or something. It is not going to be a 'regular school day'.

I will be at school because its my job as well, but most likely I will be without many students! Oh well!

[awd]

if it ain't broke don't fix it. That's the reason the schools are in the condition they are in. Lack of discipline. Leave Good Friday alone. If people want to observe it fine, if not you get a free day off.

[Hillsborough has issues]

Hi Timmy,
I am not bitter, I live in Pinellas, and I don't need “day care” anyway. Public school should not be referred of as “daycare” because that is the opposite of what it should be. I believe the school schedules are sent out more than a year in advance so I would have planned accordingly if I needed “daycare”, but I would expect there to be staff on a day school is in session. I just think that it’s silly that only Hillsborough is having a problem. Do you really think that that many teachers/staff are taking the day for religious reasons? What if all the other government workers did the same, police, firefighters etc… This was a planned school day. If I was a teacher I would have boycotted FCAT testing, not Good Friday, and maybe that is what has happened they are so sick of teaching a test that they want a day off. I can respect that.

Teachers do not have it easy, I understand that. I volunteer weekly to help out my sons’ teachers. However, that is the job they have taken and they should fulfill their obligation or find a new profession. There are many teachers that are good and want to help their students but anyone can tell you there are many just in it for a paycheck, I suspect these are the ones taking the day off because they can in the name of religious rights. These are the same teachers who slide by knowing that once they have tenure which is relatively easy to get, that they cannot be fired or demoted unless they commit a heinous crime.

The dedicated teachers will be there tomorrow, probably working overtime to pick up the slack where other left off. I hope your children have those teachers, if not I stand by my original post.

[Timmy!]

"Hillsborough has issues":

Where do I start?
Teaching contract?
Taking the day off to exercise a religious option is OK.
Apparently there are a lot of people who feel the need to take the day.

Google Good Friday and try to figure it out.

This goes back a few years so maybe you weren't paying a lot of attention. Maybe your kids are home on Friday and you are without daycare because you weren't paying attention. Now you have a problem.

You sound bitter. Wish I had a solution for that.

[xcxcxc]

who is on the school board. they are morons. it is a tradition to take good friday off. i had it when i was a kid. fire the school board!

[jb]

Maybe if we renamed Good Friday..BLACK FRIDAY then we could get it off again...

[Parent in Hillsborough County]

Incredible is all I can say about this matter. My daughters high school polled all the students class by class and about 70% of the students will be out as well as a large majority of teachers and staff. The numbers that are being listed in this article are grossly wrong. That really is not the worst of it. School buses not running, cafeteria workers not coming in. How can the school board expose our kids to such chaos just to prove a point. I personally spoke with the Superintendents office and off the record they said that they agree with everyone one that keeping the schools open on Good Friday is turning out to be a bad idea, but the "ego" sensitive school board can not admit that they made a mistake. What they are waiting for is the "hard data" to come back from their experiment to see how it plays out.

Now our children are just an experiment to the school board and their safety is based on "hard data". How sad that our kids are so insignificant to this board.

[What School Board?]

I'm a teacher, and I am going to work tomorrow. Sure, it'd be nice to have the day off, but what's the point when admin makes it so easy for kids not to come? My school made an announcement over the intercom emphasizing that students wouldn't be penalized with an absence (meaning their exam exemptions remain intact), thereby ensuring this was blown out of proportion. Before that announcement, there was NO talk about among the kids about not coming to school. It was standard operating procedure.

As for a normal day tomorrow, yeah right. It's a school wide field day... literally. I'll be there because it's my job, and I am ok with the days I work. I'm just tired of this school board saying one thing and then doing another.

I don't think teachers are upset about going to school because they just want a day off. I think it's the fact the school board essentially told the kids they didn't have to come. So if they don't have to come, of course teachers will be upset. I'll be surprised if I have more than 30 kids all day (out of the 150 or so I usually have). To me, that makes it pointless to go in. Not because I expect a holiday but because I expect to not be able to do my job properly thanks to my employer.

[Vince]

Rowdy, I am a teacher, no matter what you think! Sorry my spelling isn't the best! I will have a total of 26 students, out of 129 on Friday.

We will pool our students together to show a movie. This is not an educational day. This is only to show that we will need to take the day off since a majority of the students 'are religious'. Whether I agree with it or not, this is ridiculous! The district made a mistake and will refuse to admit it!

[LIN]

Pinellas County isn't in the news about this, because our kids don't get this day off.... You don't see our teachers making a big deal about it. Just deal with it...

[Hillsborough has issues]

Are you serious??? "Good Friday is not a recognized National Holiday (MLK DAY is by the way), I believe that the majority of people with other jobs will be working tomorrow (unless they have called in sick to watch basketball) Pinellas County has school tomorrow and has had school on Good Friday several times without a hitch. Get over yourselves, I suppose there should be no school on Valentines day either, you already have a "Fair Day", perhaps you would all like Winter off as well. I hope all of these teachers/bus drivers have a note from their priest saying they were attending mass. Just go to work and stop crying. I understand being a teacher is not glamourous or a high paying job but neither are most of the jobs people do. I believe that sanatation workers, construction workers, nurses,and many other will be working tomorrow and they don't even get a Spring Break. (oh by the way most people work in the Summer too) Congrats Pinellas for not making this an issue, I hope you make more than Hillsborough teachers.

[rowdy]

If Vince is a teacher, I'll eat my shorts. He can't even spell. Nice try. Looks like you'll have to report to school as usual.

[Timmy!]

The School Board blew it on this one. PC wussies. Fair Day, May 2nd (MayDay or Cinco de Mayo?) just 2 "holidays" that defy common sense.

Religious? Is there a case for REVEREND M.L.K. day? For the record I'm okay with it.

Let's admit that there are some things embedded in our culture. Things that are a given. Things that have historical roots. (We protect historical buildings for cryin' out loud!)

Sure we can add some things but only after they have passed the test of time.

I wonder how many parents are angry because they weren't prepared to have their kids home and the teachers are an easy target. They need to show up at a board meeting.

[Pat]

Teachers as Heroes

An essay written by an assistant principal in Ohio .
By J. Bradley:

Where are the heroes of today?" a radio talk show host thundered.

He blames society's shortcomings on education. Too many people are looking for heroes in all the wrong places. Movie stars and rock musicians, athletes, and models aren't heroes; they're celebrities. Heroes abound in public schools, a fact that doesn't make the news. There is no precedent for the level of violence, drugs, broken homes, child abuse, and crime in today's America. Education didn't create these problems but deals with them every day.

You want heroes?

Consider Dave Sanders, the school teacher shot to death while trying to shield his students from two youths on a shooting rampage at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. Sanders gave his life, along with 12 students, and other less heralded heroes survived the Colorado blood bath.

You want heroes?

Jane Smith, a Fayetteville , NC teacher, was moved by the plight of one of her students, a boy dying for want of a kidney transplant. So this woman told the family of a 14 year old boy that she would give him one of her kidneys. And she did. When they subsequently appeared together hugging on the Today Show, even Katie Couric was near tears.
You want heroes?

Doris Dillon dreamed all her life of being a teacher. She not only made it, she was one of those wondrous teachers who could bring the best out of every single child. One of her fellow teachers in San Jose, Calif., said, "She could teach a rock to read."

Suddenly she was stricken with Lou Gehrig's Disease which is always fatal, usually within five years. She asked to stay on job ... and did. When her voice was affected she communicated by computer.

Did she go home? Absolutely not! She is running two elementary school libraries! When the disease was diagnosed, she wrote the staff and all the families that she had one last lesson to teach .... that dying is part of living. Her colleagues named her Teacher of the Year.

You want heroes?

Bob House, a teacher in Gay, Georgia, tried out for Who Wants to be a Millionaire. After he won the million dollars, a network film crew wanted to follow up to see how it had impacted his life. New cars? Big new house? Instead, they found both Bob House and his wife still teaching. They explained that it was what they had always wanted to do with their lives and that would not change. The community was both stunned and gratified.

You want heroes?

Last year the average school teacher spent $468 of their own money for student necessities ... workbooks, pencils .. supplies kids had to have but could not afford. That's a lot of money from the pockets of the most poorly paid teachers in the industrial world.

Schools don't teach values? The critics are dead wrong.

Public education provides more Sunday School teachers than any other profession. The average teacher works more hours in nine months than the average 40-hour employee does in a year.

You want heroes?

For millions of kids, the hug they get from a teacher is the only hug they will get that day because the nation is living through the worst parenting in history.

An Argyle, Texas kindergarten teacher hugs her little 5 and 6 year-olds so much that both the boys and the girls run up and hug her when they see her in the hall, at the football games, or in the malls years later.

A Michigan principal moved me to tears with the story of her attempt to rescue a badly abused little boy who doted on a stuffed animal on her desk .. one that said "I love you!" He said he'd never been told that at home. This is a constant in today's society .. two million unwanted, unloved, abused children in the public schools, the only institution that takes them all in.

You want heroes?

Visit any special education class and watch the miracle of personal interaction, a job so difficult that fellow teachers are awed by the dedication they witness. There is a sentence from an unnamed source which says: "We have been so eager to give our children what we didn't have that we have neglected to give them what we did have."

What is it that our kids really need? What do they really want?

Math, science, history and social studies are important, but children need love, confidence, encouragement, someone to talk to, someone to listen, standards to live by. Teachers provide upright examples, the faith and assurance of responsible people.

You want heroes?

Then go down to your local school and see our real live heroes the ones changing lives for the better each and every day!

Now, pass this on to someone you know who's a teacher, or to someone who should thank a teacher today. I'd like to see this sent to all those who cut down the importance of teachers. They have no idea who a school teacher is or what they do.

J. Bradley-Asst. Principal
Fairland High School
Proctorville , OH

[Susan Phillips]

I hope the St Petersburg Times will follow-up and see if the Board members reported to the bus depot to provide their service, by driving one of the 200 buses not in operation on Good Friday. Of perhaps they will report to one the high-risk schools for duty. Since it is not a religious holiday for them, they should be in a classroom, just as they expect the teachers and students.
Please provide information as to where each member spent his/her day. They had a chance to avoid this situation, however, they could stand up to an insignificant group.

[a teacher in Pinellas]

Pinellas County schools are also open tomorrow. Why is that not making the news?

[Bob]

Great Job Candy Olsen and the rest of the politically correct school board. Hopefully the voters will be reminded of this when they are each up for reelection.

Maybe Hillsborough should have contacted other local county school teachers to see if they wanted to work at any of the schools.

[Fed Up Reading Teacher]

Maybe Madison is expecting a regular day... but other schools are not. We just got forwarded an email "reminding" us that only G-rated movies are to be shown in class. Coincidence? Doubt it. We were also told that any lesson we teach tomorrow, we have to repeat next week for the students who were out. S o why bother? All this hoopla is making me AFRAID to come to work tomorrow, so I won't be stuck with a bunch of kids and staying late. Oh wait, we don't have bus service! Way to go school board!

[Vince]

NO their not! As a school teacher, we were told that we needed to tell the students to stay home since it does not hurt their exam excemption! The school district is trying to prove that we can take this day off legally, and still have a secular calendar.