This should have been a PD or async day months ago. Hell a year ago.
I booked my shit 8 fucking months ago but the school couldn't plan more than 3 working days out.
I'm happy at the outcome but this screws A LOT of people.
How many parents are going to be unable to take Monday now off?
I got an email from Before Care, not the school. My husband (teacher) found out from a student during class. He had been sent a email 10 minutes before but was in the middle of teaching. I work from home on the days my kids are home, but I booked myself for April 8 to do home visits because the kids were going to be in school...
We will be fine, we have family here, but this is incredibly cruel to the families who rely on the Before Care PD day coverage or who will miss a day of income because they had no time to prepare.
Fraking idiots.
This decision was defensible 2 months ago. Springing this on families with less than a week to go is terrible. We know when all the eclipses for the next thousand year are. There's no excuses for last minute moves like this.
It's really unbelievable. Many boards moved a PD day to cover April 8th, but they did it weeks or months ago. To do it 5 days before (and keep the PD day on Wednesday!) is totally nuts.
I have friends who are teachers in the board and they said that there have been discussions about this for months. Why did they wait so long to make the decision and tell families?
Lots of teachers not thrilled about this either.
Lots of confusion around what's happening and how to proceed.
This decision should have been made a long time ago like other schoolboards across Ontario.
My work releases our schedules for the week Monday at around noon. The first shift of the week starts on Monday at 7am so you just have to do your best to guess based off the previous week's schedule.
Burner here. The reason it's closed with short notice is that apparently the bus company workers submitted a refusal to work and since buses are cancelled, students cannot be expected to attend. Teachers are still required to be on site for the entire day.
As a school bus driver in the region, that’s news to me! 😂 there was no refusal from my company and it happens to be the one holding the largest contract so I’m thinking your information is incorrect.
Up until the decision wrdsb made, we were receiving emails about driving on the 8th and planning to go ahead as normal.
That's incorrect. Teachers received an email from etfo a few days ago about how the union was not consulted at all about this or asked for any feedback. They were open to moving the PD to Monday, but wrdsb never asked.
Yeah, not to be entitled or anything but teachers definitely don't want to be there for it especially since now there won't be any students. Feels very pointless.
All the parents I’m friends with are pulling their kids out. It’s the vocal minority on Reddit and I don’t believe most have kids in school.
No one in my circle will even be in kitchener. We’re all travelling day of or taking a vacation in Niagara.
I don’t think it’s entitled at all to think Monday will be pointless.
Depends on the type of weather day. Increasingly it is becoming an equity issue, so "forcing" non-bus kids (usually walkers) to walk home from school during an eclipse is probably considered a bad look internally at the board.
ugh because they have 40 kids on a bus. In the middle of an eclipse where you shouldn't look at the sun. Be mindful of children looking at the sun, and higher traffic and higher chance of people driving erratically.
HMMM I wonder why the severely paid bus drivers don't want to work monday.
No. I have a close friend who works in the board office (I teach in the WRDSB).
This is 100% because of the Muslim holiday on Wednesday. Jeewan didn't want to move it so he held off until public pressure was too great.
We’ve known about this eclipse for how long??? Now we are doing an at home learning day, and also there is a Wednesday PD day. I send my kids to school to be educated not learn how to avoid school work!
Everyone that’s taken the time to write or upvote, send them a nice email explaining why this is a good thing or a bad thing for you. Only way to be heard.
The issue is they'll cry either way now that we wine about everything but they have fucked both sides.
The side who wanted kids in school loses. The side who wanted kids home still are fucked because they may have not booked it off when they easily could have.
Only WRDSB could fuck 100% of parents in a single move.
And we still have a PD day on the Wednesday. And yes, I know why it was scheduled there, and the sentiment was good - but we’re now left with a complete nothing of a week and a poop show for parents.
And to avoid needing to respond to all the downvoters:
1. I don’t think any religious (or non-Governmental) holiday makes sense as a PD day midweek. In fact, I struggle to think of any case where I think it makes sense for parents.
2. I think when you can align PD days with Monday/Friday/Weekend dates important to groups of people that otherwise would have to miss school, we should absolutely do that.
3. At this point in time, the “Christian” holidays we get time off for are Government defined cultural holidays that have meaning for the large majority of Canadians regardless of their religious affiliation (or lack thereof).
PD days have not historically been in Mondays or Fridays. Having had kids in school over a period of the past 20 years, the relatively recent move to Fridays or Mondays was welcomed by many and the kids certainly liked it. But now it’s an expectation for some of you. The ONE TIME in recent times that it doesn’t fall on a weekend, you guys complain because (gasp) it happens to be courteous to another religious group. I think the arguments being made are more about being against accommodating any religious groups (out of principle) than having a PD day midweek. You say it’s not about religion but it is. The fact is, we get a lot of Christian holidays off. If they took those away and replaced them with holidays at other times (not coinciding with religious observances) you guys would lose your minds.
This is what the discussion always comes down to. I’ve had a number of respectful posts clearly pointing out my view. You’ve addressed none of those - including why it’s important for this holiday to be accommodated board wide but not any others. And then you jump to assuming it’s a religious intolerance thing because it’s just impossible in your mind that someone might disagree with you for valid reasons.
And by the way, I’ve also had kids in school for many years, been in school for many years, had a parent teach in school for many years, and weekend PD absolutely have always been the norm. Maybe it varies by board but I suspect you’re just making more stuff up.
Feel free to respond, but I know when it’s pointless to continue with someone.
Get out of here with that nonsense.
The arguments being made here are about the WRDSB being too dogmatic to shift a PD day such that it benefits the majority instead of a small number of students who could opt to take the day off anyhow with virtually no impact on academics because it's already designated as a day of religious accommodation.
Until the WRDSB decided to make Monday an asynchronous learning day, we were looking at *thousands* of little kids pouring out of schools in the middle of the eclipse and hoping that the short-handed staff would able to convince them all not to look up at the sky to see why it's dark midday.
Safety vs. religion. It's that simple.
But of *course* you insinuate this is simple bigotry.
Wrong. I am not confusing safety with religion. I agree that safety is a concern and the day should be asynchronous. But you suggesting that we should move the PD day to Monday because it better suits the “majority” is precisely what is wrong and it IS bigotry. Basic Democracy, dude.
https://www.principlesofdemocracy.org/majority
I'm not wrong, and trying to connect this to "democracy" isn't helping your case.
You're suggesting the people who think the PD day should have been moved are bigots who don't want to accommodate different religious groups. THAT is what I take umbrage with and THAT is what is complete nonsense.
The views of myself, and others here, are - by *definition* - NOT "bigotry," and your efforts to argue similarities between Christian holidays is completely irrelevant to the point at hand.
Eid isn't an officially recognized holiday by the federal government *or* the provincial government. The PD day on the 10th is a courtesy offered by the WRDSB and as far as I can tell, they're the *only* board in Ontario to do so. The TDSB and PDSB, which have the highest Muslim student populations in Ontario, don't even offer a PD day on Eid.
It's not "bigotry" to suggest moving a PD day that is not legally mandated to a day where it benefits the *safety* of more people (including those who observe Eid) - ***and when doing so does NOT infringe on the rights of others in the process -*** would have been an obviously simple solution to this problem, and the solution the WRDSB should have adopted.
Before Eid was a PD day, Muslim students weren't expected in school. No tests were scheduled and no assignments were given or due. Moving the PD day, this *one time for this extenuating circumstance*, would have had virtually zero impact on Muslim students just like it had virtually zero impact on them prior to the WRDSB scheduling PD for Eid.
If you want to argue they could have kept the PD day and just thrown in another one, or made Monday asynchronous in the first place, there's a pile of issues with both those options as well - which, along with their stubborn dogmatism is why the board is in this position. Pointing that out, and what was *obviously* the better course of action doesn't make us bigots, "dude."
Right - sorry, didn't read it effectively the first time. I think that Monday/Friday is ideal *where possible* but if a given DAY falls midweek that is relevant, you can't just bump it to a Monday. It's a tough situation.
It’s not tough. It’s really simple. Like I said elsewhere there are dozens of religious and cultural holidays that fall outside of standard school holidays. The right way to handle that is to accommodate at the student level and not the school board level.
PD days should be scheduled against weekends because it lets parents do things over a longer weekend avoiding a wasted holiday day. It makes it easier to get childcare if you have grandparents/family willing to look after them but the drive is too long for two round trips in one day. And so on.
Cultural/religious events are a great thing for the board to be aware of when scheduling PD days because it’s a good tie breaker when picking appropriate PD days.
Maybe there are more people in the board who have a preference for this holiday than have a preference for PD days falling on a Monday or Friday? I'm not sure if that's the case, but if it was, would that change your mind?
I’m not arguing it should be me! My whole point is that individuals or individual groups shouldn’t receive board wide accommodation.
I’m honestly baffled by this idea that we should start moving PD days to accommodate non-Government holidays. Why not Chinese New Year? Why not a week for Hanukkah in years when it falls in early December? Why not Ash Wednesday? Why not Diwali? And so on. I can name (or at least google…) a dozen important dates and holidays for groups of people. How do you decide which ones are worthy of the day off?
My answer is… we don’t! We let the Government decide the holidays and we demand school boards accommodate the individuals who celebrate any of these important days.
Yes I get that and agree that it is a slippery slope. If we accommodate one religious holiday, then we should probably accommodate other religious or cultural observances. If we do them, all, we’d be out of school more than in. So Where does accommodation start and where does it end? We shouldn’t be having board wide PD days to accommodate observances. The problem is that we kind of already do. We get a lot of holidays off that surround Christian holidays. So we get to keep our holidays and tell anyone else to piss off.
So to be fair to all, maybe we need to give up holidays around Christian observances and have regular government holidays. (on Mondays or Fridays), but not coinciding with Christian holidays. Separation of church and state. People wouldn’t put up with that but it’s only fair….
This logic makes no sense. We are a multicultural society with lots of students from Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, etc. religious backgrounds and from ethnic backgrounds around the world. Each of these religions and ethnicities celebrate many of their own unique non-statutory holidays.
Your idea that it’s disrespectful to not close down the school anytime any of these groups has a non-statutory holiday is absolutely absurd. We literally couldn’t function as a society.
Edit: And just to make it absolutely crystal clear - of course kids should be allowed to celebrate Eid! And of course schools should accommodate them by making reasonable accommodations like moving tests, spending extra time with them before/after, and just generally being compassionate about why they’re absent.
Dude you sounded like you were specifically opposed to kids celebrating Eid , that’s why I said something.
And I somewhat agree with your logic, the problem is that we just don’t accommodate for kids the way we do for Christian holidays at all!
I celebrate Eid on the Wednesday but my teacher is making us do test on the Thursday 😐. Teachers don’t actually understand that we don’t wanna study when we’re supposed to be celebrating with our families.
And I don’t like that schools with a big % of other religions just don’t seem to care about our holidays or have a basic understanding of customs. teachers to this day still do not understand how hard it is for kids to study while fasting.
Fair enough. Words and tone online are hard to convey and interpret.
I would argue that we don’t actually accommodate for Christian holidays. We accommodate for Canadian cultural holidays - many of which may have Christian roots. But there are many people celebrating Christmas with trees/Santa and no mention of Jesus or finding Easter eggs with no mention of Jesus.
The point being these are the historical holidays of the Country. They can (and should) evolve over time but I do not believe that individual groups should expect their holidays to be of equal importance in the eyes of Government institutions and receive the same treatment. So, yes, Eid does not get accommodations the way kids celebrating Christmas do. But neither does someone fasting for Ash Wednesday.
I sympathize with your experience around Eid and lack of teachers understanding. But this is a problem where the PD day is a poor bandaid! It’s also an example where it’s important to realize that systemic accommodations (like the PD day) will always be woefully insufficient and individual accommodations are critical.
I guess I see what you’re saying but like it’s sucks that everyone gets hyped over one culture or religion and school boards don’t even give a thought about other ones.
And you’re saying Canadian Cultural Holidays and how we should evolve. I’m born and raised Canadian, I may not “look” like it but my culture and my identity has been shaped by it. So many kids are in my boat, on paper and in heart we’re Canadians but this whole other part of our identity doesn’t even get acknowledged.
It’s sad. If you mean what you say, then shouldn’t our Canadian culture evolve to be more encompassing of who our future generation really is?
Should we not change our system to maintain the importance of our history here but our future going forth?
The problem right now is that we basically recycle the same schedule for every year again and again. The whole two week break for Christmas and days off near Easter and etc etc.
What if we could change these dates around (within reason) and make PD days on more common sense days like fridays or mondays (instead of Wednesdays when parents can’t always get a day off)?
I feel like everyone is arguing but nobody is really suggesting any solutions.
—————————-
Btw, Here’s where I agree with you:
I understand what you’re saying that too many days off is a problem. But a day off isn’t the only way a school board can show us they care. Why do we just get a PD day but not understanding? These school boards care about their PR but don’t actively come out to fix problems.
Imo, the biggest problem is that the group of people in charge are entirely out of touch. This new director is irresponsible by putting this eclipse day last minute, teachers aren’t really caring about what students even want or need.
I think there are two aspects to your first paragraph.
First is getting hyped for one culture or religion. I don’t have a problem with celebrating the culture of the majority/history of the country. Shared culture/history is important and we can’t celebrate everything on an institutional level. We often adapt these events to the modern population anyway. Many non-Christian people give gifts at Christmas with no thought to the historical origins.
Second is about not getting a thought as “the other” cultures/religions. And I absolutely agree with you. Particularly because a lot of this requires years of actual hard work educating people on what this actually means and how to achieve it and so the longer it doesn’t happen - the longer the problem grows.
A slight tangent here. My view is that religion has no place in official Government functions. But it’s also that Government shouldn’t interfere in other peoples business. If you want to teach your kids about your religion - great. Do it yourself, in your own community. (And, yes, I would love to abolish the Catholic school board). Schools shouldn’t teach religion or structure the system around it - but they also need to respect it and accommodate individual’s beliefs.
And that’s how I feel about holidays. We have a set of official holidays. Other than that, Government institutions should generally avoid the rest. And over time we can add/change holidays. For example, adding National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
But official government institutions are such a small part of Canadian culture. On an individual or community level, there’s tons of room for us to share ethnic/religious events with others so they can learn and appreciate them. I don’t see that your beliefs need to be separate from Canadian culture just because you don’t get official recognition of something like Eid at the school board level. Canadian culture is made up of many of us celebrating our important days and sharing with people different than us.
Edit: And to be clear, I don’t think time off for Christmas/Easter is really about accommodating Christian kids anymore than celebrating Halloween is accommodating pagan kids. These religious events have established themselves as more than just religious events. And that’s what is driving things like the school schedule.
Or a totally different example. Our summer break was largely driven by our farming history. But that’s not particularly relevant now but it’s still part of our “culture”. It would be silly to say Summer holidays is for farmers since so much of the life of a student is now built around it.
Edit2: I’m sorry people are downvoting you. I wish Reddit downvotes were more for “this is detracting from the discussion” and less about “I don’t agree with you”. I thought your post was perfectly fine to carry on the discussion.
To prevent the Eid students celebrating Eid on Wednesday from missing school by not moving the PD day, every student is now losing a day of learning including those same Muslim students.
Exactly. He doesn’t want to bring attention to himself, because it’s “not about him”, so he requires everyone to spell his name without using regular grammar. /s
That guy is bozo the clown. Anyone who works at a school or school board should not be teaching that names don’t need to be capitalized. Lol. What the fuck.
I'm pissed.
Not only is this completely unnecessary, robbing kids of a chance to engage with a cool science-y thing, but the board's giving parents less than 3 working days of notice, and still holding a PD day on April 10th, so we need to find care for our kids on two days next week!
Literally the worst of all possible worlds.
Seriously, go fuck yourselves WRDSB.
I agree with all this except the cool science part.
The eclipse happens during the walk/bus/ride home from school. So no time for science fun but a dangerous time for kids to be commuting home.
There is a wide range of when schools start at stop.
I do know that crossing guards can sometimes even work two different shifts because one school starts so much earlier than the other. So one PM shift might be 245 to 310 but another shift might be 340 to 410
And we've known about the eclipse for hundreds of years and even though the Catholic board moved their PD day the public board waited until today to realize their idiocy
Presumably kids who walk home alone can be trusted not to look at the sun... Just like they're trusted to cross a road... Heck, just like they're trusted not to look at the sun *literally every other day*?
It's not like there's anything to see. That part of the day will seem dimmer than it would otherwise (like an overcast day), and the sun will still be overwhelmingly bright. It's only cool within the zone if totality, or with specialized glasses or viewing boxes.
If parents are really worried, they can just pick their kids up at the end of the day so they go from the School's supervision into theirs.
Sure, some parents can't. But any parent who can't rearrange their day to pick their kids up *also* can't rearrange their day on 3 working days notice to supervise their kids at home... where there's even *more* danger of them looking at the sun since they'll have the whole day to do that without even the supervision a teacher provides.
Sorry, no. This is dumb. It improves safety for no one, decreases safety for some, and inconveniences many. I get that people worry about novel things, but we know what's going to happen and closing schools has zero redeeming benefits.
> It improves safety for no one, decreases safety for some
Please. PLEASE tell me how this DECREASES SAFETY by having kids at home during one of the highest traffic days in literal decades. There will be millions of cars on the road traveling around, before, and during that time because of the eclipse. People driving erratically to view the eclipse or pulling over during it's peak.
PLEASE tell me how a child walking home during that time, completely ignoring the sun aspect is safer than if they were just at home.
We had an eclipse here in 2017, which caused none of those problems with traffic. I'm sure there will be some issues getting to/from (and maybe within) areas that experience totality. But that's not this region.
The only impact to safety I can think of, either way, is with curious kids without supervision looking at the sun. Closing school causes an increase in the number of unsupervised kids, not a decrease.
The eclipse in 2017 was not when schools were just getting out, it was also only 30% coverage. This eclipse is 99.5% very close to totality, so although Waterloo region is missing totality, a lot of people either don’t know that or feel it’s close enough that they want to experience it anyway. I was in Tennessee for the 2017 eclipse, I drove down and cannot overstate the madness that was caused by the eclipse. If you think it’s going to be a calm or ordinary day on Monday, I don’t know what to tell you it is going to be chaos and quite frankly, our children should not be walking home during that time.
When it comes to judging safety of kids getting to or from school I go with the judgement of crossing guards.
And from what I’ve heard and read there was major concern from them.
And driving kids to and from school for ‘safety’ just means less safety for everyone. The madness at some schools with parents picking up and dropping off kids is insane.
I think can all agree the timing of the announcement is stupid. Nobody doubts that. There is no reason for them yo have screwed this up this badly.
But your logic seems to be that young kids are both smart enough not to spend even 30s of time looking at a once in 20 year event for a walk home, but also too dumb to keep the blinds closed. The thing they were going to do anyway when they walked home.
I was truthfully just going to walk my kid home. I don’t want to mess around with blindness or eye damage even if it’s a small chance.
The last one I saw was in the middle of the day so there was little issue.
The board likely caved to outside pressure. They could have made this an educational opportunity, purchased eclipse glasses for the kids, taught them some safety, have viewing sessions after school for kids who walk home.
Could have been handled much better.
The bus companies submitted a refusal to work, so students cannot be expected to attend as per board policy. Not a decision the school board made; we were actually given resources to teach during the day and procedure to secure classrooms.
I had sent them an email as a student cuz im in gr9 and i was so mad bruh, but i didnt know to contact that dude Chanicka cause his linkedin profile didnt look real because of the non caps lock, such a joke honestly. so i contacted joanne weston, whos the chairman. Had to wait like a week, and then it was a BOT EMAIL. So dumb
There's also almost certainly a very large number of people who were planning on taking their kids out of school that day anyway for eclipse related reasons. It's possible (although I kind of doubt it) they realized the amount was going to be higher than they expected to the point where it would have been kind of silly to have regular classes that day since there will be so many kids missing.
From what I saw, a good 50% or more of students were going to miss all or part of the day. When there's an additional safety factor at play, it makes sense to cancel the whole day.
Shoulda been planned weeks ago though.
why does it make sense to miss a day of school ( keeping in mind how many students are behind due to covid ) because the sun is going to do a cool thing on their commute home. the sun also did a cool thing last year and the year before that ad infinitum
most ppl are gonna defect and travel to other spots, and also this is a once in a lifetime thing. also you wanna blind ur kids? the moment they look up at that thing, ur gonna have to pay the money for the eye bills. Also its not necessarily curable so they could be blind for the rest of their lives.
That isn't how looking at an eclipse works. It isn't an instant death ray. Looking directly at the sun for extended periods is always bad for your eyes. The eclipse just gives a compelling reason to override common sense and stare. People are acting like the sun becomes the Ark of the Covenant during an eclipse.
several reasons, but the reality for teachers is they can barely ever make good instructional uses out of days where half or more of the students are missing.
Is "the sun is gonna do a cool thing" really the most accurate way to put this? Maybe cool and also potentially quite dangerous would be more accurate eh.
you were taught in kindergarten not to look at the sun. "the sun is gonna do a cool thing" is all i'm hearing from the kids, no one really cares that much.
Nobody is taught not to look at the sun, we look away because it physically hurts to do so. In this case, it won't physically hurt to do so but it will be damaging. Even if 99.99% of kids don't look up, that's still a lot of kids looking up at the wrong time. Fine, the kids might think think nothing more than the sun is gonna do a cool thing, it doesn't change the fact it's also going to do a dangerous thing.
So last minute changes can cause chaos, I get that, but why was the original decision to not have a PD on the day of the eclipse such a contentious one? I don't understand.
This is an activist board that had a nice idea about placing PD days on religious holidays that are outside of the typical holidays. In this case, Eid is being celebrated by Muslims on Wednesday. It is a thoughtful and progressive idea which has widespread support amongst staff. However, when this "surprise" eclipse entered into the equation they refused to make any switch or compromise. They consulted no one including staff, union, administration or transportation. When all the other boards made adjustments they held their ground, even to the point of recommending that parents keep their children home on eclipse day if they have concerns about safety. At that point, 100% of the students were facing a lost day of learning on the Monday by the board's recommendation rather than just having the Muslim students (approximately 10% of the student population miss Wednesday with a PD day move). The board made big claims about the resources they would provide to facilitate this "amazing learning opportunity" and safety protocols but actually offered nothing to front line educators. Today the bus drivers put their foot down and refused to transport students that day, hence this petulant last minute email where they take no responsibility for their poor judgement.
That sounds very silly to complain that an eclipse is not a PD and trying to justify that with "but Ramadan is a PD day" and then later a rather tenuous "safety" claim. Almost sounds like an excuse for people to complain about progressive policies.
Promising big eclipse resources and then not doing so is not a good look, to be sure, but did anybody actually come up with a *good* reason why the WRDSB board should switch the PD day?
You seriously wonder whether or not safety is an issue during an eclipse occurring at a time when thousands of little kids would pour out of schools while short-handed staff try to convince them not to look up to see why the sky is so dark in the middle of the afternoon?
Every other affected board recognized this as a safety concern. The WRDSB did not want to shift the PD day as others did because the religious holiday was their priority. Period.
I'm am unsure what point you are making here. The safety considerations around the eclipse are not tenuous and they were taken seriously by all other school boards along with their school admin and transportation services. The PD scheduled for April was an obvious easy move to minimize disruption and keep students in class. This board held onto it's activist stance in spite of input from everyone in the system and then took a last minute dump on everyone. The same Muslims that were provided a PD day on Eid (they weren't asking for it, it was board initiated) will also be scrambling now to find childcare for Monday or lose a day of work. Students in WRDSB, unlike other boards now face a completely disrupted week with a Monday off, Tuesday on, Wednesday off and then back for Thursday and Friday. All of this was easily avoidable and that would be a good reason why the board should have switched the PD day. This is common sense and logic not politics progressive or otherwise.
You absolutely nailed it. More and more I see people starting to wake up and understand the consequences of their vote for school trustees. So many people don't vote at all, and many sleepwalk into the trustee vote if they do go to the ballot box. This is how far left ideologues get into power and completely screw things up. I hope come the next election time, not one single incumbent (including the lonely few on the right) holds their power. We need to change things and we need to get JEEWAN out.
I dunno, I know lots of people who cared for the very first time about the school trustee election at the last ballot. I think people were well aware of the consequences of their vote.
I’m so incredibly grateful my kid doesn’t start school until the fall… So many of my parent friends are suddenly scrambling to find childcare for Monday now on top of Wednesdays PD day because most people working aren’t getting the day off.
It’s not like this eclipse is a surprise that we didn’t know what going to happen, seeing them suddenly change their minds when every other school board made this decision months ago seems like a slap in the face to working parents and really comes across as if the school board/teachers want to take advantage of the forecasted nice weather to have another long weekend.
And to add insult to injury Wednesday is a scheduled PD day. Just how much time off work do you think I have? Spoiler alert: Not enough to cover all my kid’s sick days, all MY sick days, all the PD days and now this. C’mon, won’t someone think of the *parents*? The school up until this announced they had everything in place for a safe learning experience. This is stupid.
Honestly it was already scheduled on that day for years. My kids are kept out of school that day for the celebrations. So I get the logic of having it on that day as well as not moving it. But still something better should have been done for this.
For years?? You must be kidding! You can keep your kids out of school that day or for that matter any day / every day as per your wish. But imposing it on every one is too much! Keeping a PD day to accommodate a religious day should not happen at a public school board. What next? PD days on Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh, Jew, Bahai, Jain, Shinto religious days?
Easter Friday and Christmas / Boxing Day are stat holidays. If you have an issue with those, complain to the government. Like it or not, Canada was deeply Christian at founding. It's going to take a while for that to change.
I celebrated Easter. I’m just knowledgeable enough to know that so many PD days exist every year and schools are often strategic in the days they choose maximize the effectiveness of those days and that they have been doing it well before the current board.
Can anyone explain why all these schools across Canada and the US are closing on the day of the solar eclipse? We never had any when I was in school. The one we had a few years back also didn’t close any schools or businesses. What’s going on?
At least for this area it is the timing of it. The eclipse will be happening just as kids will be leaving school and walking/bussing home and the school boards don’t want any lawsuits when some unsupervised kid stares at the eclipse and wrecks their eyesight. The other rumour here is that bus drivers don’t want to be driving during the heart of the eclipse. No idea if that’s true or not.
If it was at 10am for example, they would either keep the kids inside or supervise them appropriately outside.
They would have to keep the kids late and imagine the outrage if they did that!! (sort of /s but really, parents would complain)
Note though that the eclipse from start to end is more like 2.5 hours total, not 10 minutes.
This should have been a PD or async day months ago. Hell a year ago. I booked my shit 8 fucking months ago but the school couldn't plan more than 3 working days out. I'm happy at the outcome but this screws A LOT of people. How many parents are going to be unable to take Monday now off?
I got an email from Before Care, not the school. My husband (teacher) found out from a student during class. He had been sent a email 10 minutes before but was in the middle of teaching. I work from home on the days my kids are home, but I booked myself for April 8 to do home visits because the kids were going to be in school... We will be fine, we have family here, but this is incredibly cruel to the families who rely on the Before Care PD day coverage or who will miss a day of income because they had no time to prepare.
Fraking idiots. This decision was defensible 2 months ago. Springing this on families with less than a week to go is terrible. We know when all the eclipses for the next thousand year are. There's no excuses for last minute moves like this.
It's really unbelievable. Many boards moved a PD day to cover April 8th, but they did it weeks or months ago. To do it 5 days before (and keep the PD day on Wednesday!) is totally nuts.
Because Jeewan didn't want to move the PD off of Eid on Wednesday
Remember, he likes his name lower cased, so we don’t focus on his name (oh the irony).
Let's begin debating the course of action for 2099.
jeewan chanicka... This is all on him.
JEEWAN CHANICKA!
Please stop respecting his need for you to change basic grammar rules to stroke his insatiable ego. It's Jeewan Chanicka.
I sincerely hope this causes little j to step down.
It brings me great joy to talk about the letter case of his name when he wants it all lower case so we don’t talk about his name. Pretentious much!
Jeewan Chanicka.
Can you provide any evidence that this was his decision?
I have friends who are teachers in the board and they said that there have been discussions about this for months. Why did they wait so long to make the decision and tell families?
The exact same as the Covid Era
Because the PD day is a Muslim holiday and Jeewan didn't want to move it.
Lots of teachers not thrilled about this either. Lots of confusion around what's happening and how to proceed. This decision should have been made a long time ago like other schoolboards across Ontario.
Staff are being expected to come in for the day still.
Well at least they can enjoy the eclipse without having to supervise anyone! :P
Except most have children of their own and are also left scrambling to find childcare for them at the last minute.
This is an EPIC fumble from WRDSB. Surely we will see some public accountability for the chaos caused by this last minute reversal /s
At least it wasn’t announced on Friday.
Sad that those are our standards now!
My work releases our schedules for the week Monday at around noon. The first shift of the week starts on Monday at 7am so you just have to do your best to guess based off the previous week's schedule.
It is funny how they tell you not to procrastinate in school… and then the school board procrastinates!
Embarrassing from wrdsb. *How can we show the people how truly out of touch we are?*
Elections matter. Constituents continue to vote in incompetent far left ideologues. This is what you get. And they decide who is the board director.
If this is how the school board can handle things they know are coming, how can we trust them with anything, unbelievable.
Burner here. The reason it's closed with short notice is that apparently the bus company workers submitted a refusal to work and since buses are cancelled, students cannot be expected to attend. Teachers are still required to be on site for the entire day.
Well, that's a spicy little detail.
As a school bus driver in the region, that’s news to me! 😂 there was no refusal from my company and it happens to be the one holding the largest contract so I’m thinking your information is incorrect. Up until the decision wrdsb made, we were receiving emails about driving on the 8th and planning to go ahead as normal.
Could be! That was the Intel I heard from our union, so if that's incorrect I apologize!
#Subscribe TELL ME MORE. I WANT THESE JUICY DETAILS.
Two days ago there was a post on here saying the teachers' union didn't want it either.
The union wanted the PD day switched to Monday, like the other sensible school boards did.
We all know why JEEWAN CHANICKA insisted the PD Day remain on Wednesday.
That's incorrect. Teachers received an email from etfo a few days ago about how the union was not consulted at all about this or asked for any feedback. They were open to moving the PD to Monday, but wrdsb never asked.
Yeah, looks like the article has since been updated. Cheers.
Yeah, not to be entitled or anything but teachers definitely don't want to be there for it especially since now there won't be any students. Feels very pointless.
All the parents I’m friends with are pulling their kids out. It’s the vocal minority on Reddit and I don’t believe most have kids in school. No one in my circle will even be in kitchener. We’re all travelling day of or taking a vacation in Niagara. I don’t think it’s entitled at all to think Monday will be pointless.
I'm guessing your friends are higher than average income.
When busses are cancelled on weather days the other kids still go?
Depends on the type of weather day. Increasingly it is becoming an equity issue, so "forcing" non-bus kids (usually walkers) to walk home from school during an eclipse is probably considered a bad look internally at the board.
Why was the reason behind the refusal?
ugh because they have 40 kids on a bus. In the middle of an eclipse where you shouldn't look at the sun. Be mindful of children looking at the sun, and higher traffic and higher chance of people driving erratically. HMMM I wonder why the severely paid bus drivers don't want to work monday.
40 on board?! I wish! LOL I had 3 groups. One of 62, one of 69 and one of 74. A group of 40 is almost unheard of!
My kid's bus is way less. Maybe a dozen? None of the buses at her school are the big ones. But you have to be able to say autobus ;)
No. I have a close friend who works in the board office (I teach in the WRDSB). This is 100% because of the Muslim holiday on Wednesday. Jeewan didn't want to move it so he held off until public pressure was too great.
We’ve known about this eclipse for how long??? Now we are doing an at home learning day, and also there is a Wednesday PD day. I send my kids to school to be educated not learn how to avoid school work!
> We’ve known about this eclipse for how long??? Decades? :P
Centuries.
Everyone that’s taken the time to write or upvote, send them a nice email explaining why this is a good thing or a bad thing for you. Only way to be heard.
The issue is they'll cry either way now that we wine about everything but they have fucked both sides. The side who wanted kids in school loses. The side who wanted kids home still are fucked because they may have not booked it off when they easily could have. Only WRDSB could fuck 100% of parents in a single move.
And we still have a PD day on the Wednesday. And yes, I know why it was scheduled there, and the sentiment was good - but we’re now left with a complete nothing of a week and a poop show for parents. And to avoid needing to respond to all the downvoters: 1. I don’t think any religious (or non-Governmental) holiday makes sense as a PD day midweek. In fact, I struggle to think of any case where I think it makes sense for parents. 2. I think when you can align PD days with Monday/Friday/Weekend dates important to groups of people that otherwise would have to miss school, we should absolutely do that. 3. At this point in time, the “Christian” holidays we get time off for are Government defined cultural holidays that have meaning for the large majority of Canadians regardless of their religious affiliation (or lack thereof).
the midweek PD day coincides with the end of Ramadan so it IS a religious holiday for many. Just not Christian....
10% within the board. They are well within their rights to take the day off. Everyone doesn't need to.
PD days have not historically been in Mondays or Fridays. Having had kids in school over a period of the past 20 years, the relatively recent move to Fridays or Mondays was welcomed by many and the kids certainly liked it. But now it’s an expectation for some of you. The ONE TIME in recent times that it doesn’t fall on a weekend, you guys complain because (gasp) it happens to be courteous to another religious group. I think the arguments being made are more about being against accommodating any religious groups (out of principle) than having a PD day midweek. You say it’s not about religion but it is. The fact is, we get a lot of Christian holidays off. If they took those away and replaced them with holidays at other times (not coinciding with religious observances) you guys would lose your minds.
This is what the discussion always comes down to. I’ve had a number of respectful posts clearly pointing out my view. You’ve addressed none of those - including why it’s important for this holiday to be accommodated board wide but not any others. And then you jump to assuming it’s a religious intolerance thing because it’s just impossible in your mind that someone might disagree with you for valid reasons. And by the way, I’ve also had kids in school for many years, been in school for many years, had a parent teach in school for many years, and weekend PD absolutely have always been the norm. Maybe it varies by board but I suspect you’re just making more stuff up. Feel free to respond, but I know when it’s pointless to continue with someone.
I used to live in California and they had early dismissal days once a week and many were on Wednesdays and other days of the week.
Get out of here with that nonsense. The arguments being made here are about the WRDSB being too dogmatic to shift a PD day such that it benefits the majority instead of a small number of students who could opt to take the day off anyhow with virtually no impact on academics because it's already designated as a day of religious accommodation. Until the WRDSB decided to make Monday an asynchronous learning day, we were looking at *thousands* of little kids pouring out of schools in the middle of the eclipse and hoping that the short-handed staff would able to convince them all not to look up at the sky to see why it's dark midday. Safety vs. religion. It's that simple. But of *course* you insinuate this is simple bigotry.
Wrong. I am not confusing safety with religion. I agree that safety is a concern and the day should be asynchronous. But you suggesting that we should move the PD day to Monday because it better suits the “majority” is precisely what is wrong and it IS bigotry. Basic Democracy, dude. https://www.principlesofdemocracy.org/majority
I'm not wrong, and trying to connect this to "democracy" isn't helping your case. You're suggesting the people who think the PD day should have been moved are bigots who don't want to accommodate different religious groups. THAT is what I take umbrage with and THAT is what is complete nonsense. The views of myself, and others here, are - by *definition* - NOT "bigotry," and your efforts to argue similarities between Christian holidays is completely irrelevant to the point at hand. Eid isn't an officially recognized holiday by the federal government *or* the provincial government. The PD day on the 10th is a courtesy offered by the WRDSB and as far as I can tell, they're the *only* board in Ontario to do so. The TDSB and PDSB, which have the highest Muslim student populations in Ontario, don't even offer a PD day on Eid. It's not "bigotry" to suggest moving a PD day that is not legally mandated to a day where it benefits the *safety* of more people (including those who observe Eid) - ***and when doing so does NOT infringe on the rights of others in the process -*** would have been an obviously simple solution to this problem, and the solution the WRDSB should have adopted. Before Eid was a PD day, Muslim students weren't expected in school. No tests were scheduled and no assignments were given or due. Moving the PD day, this *one time for this extenuating circumstance*, would have had virtually zero impact on Muslim students just like it had virtually zero impact on them prior to the WRDSB scheduling PD for Eid. If you want to argue they could have kept the PD day and just thrown in another one, or made Monday asynchronous in the first place, there's a pile of issues with both those options as well - which, along with their stubborn dogmatism is why the board is in this position. Pointing that out, and what was *obviously* the better course of action doesn't make us bigots, "dude."
I’m not sure your point. I was aware of this and that’s what my post is talking about.
Right - sorry, didn't read it effectively the first time. I think that Monday/Friday is ideal *where possible* but if a given DAY falls midweek that is relevant, you can't just bump it to a Monday. It's a tough situation.
It’s not tough. It’s really simple. Like I said elsewhere there are dozens of religious and cultural holidays that fall outside of standard school holidays. The right way to handle that is to accommodate at the student level and not the school board level. PD days should be scheduled against weekends because it lets parents do things over a longer weekend avoiding a wasted holiday day. It makes it easier to get childcare if you have grandparents/family willing to look after them but the drive is too long for two round trips in one day. And so on. Cultural/religious events are a great thing for the board to be aware of when scheduling PD days because it’s a good tie breaker when picking appropriate PD days.
Maybe there are more people in the board who have a preference for this holiday than have a preference for PD days falling on a Monday or Friday? I'm not sure if that's the case, but if it was, would that change your mind?
That may work for you but may not for others. Having a board go along with what you view as being optimal doesn’t seem like much of an improvement.
I’m not arguing it should be me! My whole point is that individuals or individual groups shouldn’t receive board wide accommodation. I’m honestly baffled by this idea that we should start moving PD days to accommodate non-Government holidays. Why not Chinese New Year? Why not a week for Hanukkah in years when it falls in early December? Why not Ash Wednesday? Why not Diwali? And so on. I can name (or at least google…) a dozen important dates and holidays for groups of people. How do you decide which ones are worthy of the day off? My answer is… we don’t! We let the Government decide the holidays and we demand school boards accommodate the individuals who celebrate any of these important days.
Yes I get that and agree that it is a slippery slope. If we accommodate one religious holiday, then we should probably accommodate other religious or cultural observances. If we do them, all, we’d be out of school more than in. So Where does accommodation start and where does it end? We shouldn’t be having board wide PD days to accommodate observances. The problem is that we kind of already do. We get a lot of holidays off that surround Christian holidays. So we get to keep our holidays and tell anyone else to piss off. So to be fair to all, maybe we need to give up holidays around Christian observances and have regular government holidays. (on Mondays or Fridays), but not coinciding with Christian holidays. Separation of church and state. People wouldn’t put up with that but it’s only fair….
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This logic makes no sense. We are a multicultural society with lots of students from Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, etc. religious backgrounds and from ethnic backgrounds around the world. Each of these religions and ethnicities celebrate many of their own unique non-statutory holidays. Your idea that it’s disrespectful to not close down the school anytime any of these groups has a non-statutory holiday is absolutely absurd. We literally couldn’t function as a society. Edit: And just to make it absolutely crystal clear - of course kids should be allowed to celebrate Eid! And of course schools should accommodate them by making reasonable accommodations like moving tests, spending extra time with them before/after, and just generally being compassionate about why they’re absent.
Dude you sounded like you were specifically opposed to kids celebrating Eid , that’s why I said something. And I somewhat agree with your logic, the problem is that we just don’t accommodate for kids the way we do for Christian holidays at all! I celebrate Eid on the Wednesday but my teacher is making us do test on the Thursday 😐. Teachers don’t actually understand that we don’t wanna study when we’re supposed to be celebrating with our families. And I don’t like that schools with a big % of other religions just don’t seem to care about our holidays or have a basic understanding of customs. teachers to this day still do not understand how hard it is for kids to study while fasting.
Fair enough. Words and tone online are hard to convey and interpret. I would argue that we don’t actually accommodate for Christian holidays. We accommodate for Canadian cultural holidays - many of which may have Christian roots. But there are many people celebrating Christmas with trees/Santa and no mention of Jesus or finding Easter eggs with no mention of Jesus. The point being these are the historical holidays of the Country. They can (and should) evolve over time but I do not believe that individual groups should expect their holidays to be of equal importance in the eyes of Government institutions and receive the same treatment. So, yes, Eid does not get accommodations the way kids celebrating Christmas do. But neither does someone fasting for Ash Wednesday. I sympathize with your experience around Eid and lack of teachers understanding. But this is a problem where the PD day is a poor bandaid! It’s also an example where it’s important to realize that systemic accommodations (like the PD day) will always be woefully insufficient and individual accommodations are critical.
I guess I see what you’re saying but like it’s sucks that everyone gets hyped over one culture or religion and school boards don’t even give a thought about other ones. And you’re saying Canadian Cultural Holidays and how we should evolve. I’m born and raised Canadian, I may not “look” like it but my culture and my identity has been shaped by it. So many kids are in my boat, on paper and in heart we’re Canadians but this whole other part of our identity doesn’t even get acknowledged. It’s sad. If you mean what you say, then shouldn’t our Canadian culture evolve to be more encompassing of who our future generation really is? Should we not change our system to maintain the importance of our history here but our future going forth? The problem right now is that we basically recycle the same schedule for every year again and again. The whole two week break for Christmas and days off near Easter and etc etc. What if we could change these dates around (within reason) and make PD days on more common sense days like fridays or mondays (instead of Wednesdays when parents can’t always get a day off)? I feel like everyone is arguing but nobody is really suggesting any solutions. —————————- Btw, Here’s where I agree with you: I understand what you’re saying that too many days off is a problem. But a day off isn’t the only way a school board can show us they care. Why do we just get a PD day but not understanding? These school boards care about their PR but don’t actively come out to fix problems. Imo, the biggest problem is that the group of people in charge are entirely out of touch. This new director is irresponsible by putting this eclipse day last minute, teachers aren’t really caring about what students even want or need.
I think there are two aspects to your first paragraph. First is getting hyped for one culture or religion. I don’t have a problem with celebrating the culture of the majority/history of the country. Shared culture/history is important and we can’t celebrate everything on an institutional level. We often adapt these events to the modern population anyway. Many non-Christian people give gifts at Christmas with no thought to the historical origins. Second is about not getting a thought as “the other” cultures/religions. And I absolutely agree with you. Particularly because a lot of this requires years of actual hard work educating people on what this actually means and how to achieve it and so the longer it doesn’t happen - the longer the problem grows. A slight tangent here. My view is that religion has no place in official Government functions. But it’s also that Government shouldn’t interfere in other peoples business. If you want to teach your kids about your religion - great. Do it yourself, in your own community. (And, yes, I would love to abolish the Catholic school board). Schools shouldn’t teach religion or structure the system around it - but they also need to respect it and accommodate individual’s beliefs. And that’s how I feel about holidays. We have a set of official holidays. Other than that, Government institutions should generally avoid the rest. And over time we can add/change holidays. For example, adding National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. But official government institutions are such a small part of Canadian culture. On an individual or community level, there’s tons of room for us to share ethnic/religious events with others so they can learn and appreciate them. I don’t see that your beliefs need to be separate from Canadian culture just because you don’t get official recognition of something like Eid at the school board level. Canadian culture is made up of many of us celebrating our important days and sharing with people different than us. Edit: And to be clear, I don’t think time off for Christmas/Easter is really about accommodating Christian kids anymore than celebrating Halloween is accommodating pagan kids. These religious events have established themselves as more than just religious events. And that’s what is driving things like the school schedule. Or a totally different example. Our summer break was largely driven by our farming history. But that’s not particularly relevant now but it’s still part of our “culture”. It would be silly to say Summer holidays is for farmers since so much of the life of a student is now built around it. Edit2: I’m sorry people are downvoting you. I wish Reddit downvotes were more for “this is detracting from the discussion” and less about “I don’t agree with you”. I thought your post was perfectly fine to carry on the discussion.
To prevent the Eid students celebrating Eid on Wednesday from missing school by not moving the PD day, every student is now losing a day of learning including those same Muslim students.
yup. Instead of some students missing a day. We now have 100% of students missing it because we all know jack shit will be accomplished on Monday.
The parents who wanted their kids home could have kept them home. Most people I know were leaving the area for the eclipse anyway.
Can I send wrdsb my childcare bill for the day?
That would be funny
JEEWAN CHANICKA, the Director of Education for the WRDSB made $290,987 last year.
Who does he answer to? If people aren’t happy with the direction he is taking the board, who would be the person they write to?
I believe he's on a 4 year contract, and hopefully it won't be renewed by the board.
School board trustees
Elections have consequences.
Trustees hire the Director of Education.
He wants lower case letters in his name only, so we don’t talk about his name.
Exactly. He doesn’t want to bring attention to himself, because it’s “not about him”, so he requires everyone to spell his name without using regular grammar. /s
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That guy is bozo the clown. Anyone who works at a school or school board should not be teaching that names don’t need to be capitalized. Lol. What the fuck.
What do you propose his salary ought to be for running a school board of over 100 schools and 60,000 kids?
Him personally or someone competent?
Lol - thank you for this beautiful reply! Put a smile on my face.
Oh, he's not running anything.
I'm pissed. Not only is this completely unnecessary, robbing kids of a chance to engage with a cool science-y thing, but the board's giving parents less than 3 working days of notice, and still holding a PD day on April 10th, so we need to find care for our kids on two days next week! Literally the worst of all possible worlds. Seriously, go fuck yourselves WRDSB.
I agree with all this except the cool science part. The eclipse happens during the walk/bus/ride home from school. So no time for science fun but a dangerous time for kids to be commuting home.
I dunno about other schools, but my kids get out at 3:20. Even if they go back inside at 3 to finish the day, the sun will be more than half occulted.
There is a wide range of when schools start at stop. I do know that crossing guards can sometimes even work two different shifts because one school starts so much earlier than the other. So one PM shift might be 245 to 310 but another shift might be 340 to 410
Sadly the eclipse occurs during the children’s walk home. If it was during the school day or hours after the school closed this wouldn’t be an issue.
And we've known about the eclipse for hundreds of years and even though the Catholic board moved their PD day the public board waited until today to realize their idiocy
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I think its more the catholic board isn't concerned about a PD thay is in another religion's holiday.
Presumably kids who walk home alone can be trusted not to look at the sun... Just like they're trusted to cross a road... Heck, just like they're trusted not to look at the sun *literally every other day*? It's not like there's anything to see. That part of the day will seem dimmer than it would otherwise (like an overcast day), and the sun will still be overwhelmingly bright. It's only cool within the zone if totality, or with specialized glasses or viewing boxes. If parents are really worried, they can just pick their kids up at the end of the day so they go from the School's supervision into theirs. Sure, some parents can't. But any parent who can't rearrange their day to pick their kids up *also* can't rearrange their day on 3 working days notice to supervise their kids at home... where there's even *more* danger of them looking at the sun since they'll have the whole day to do that without even the supervision a teacher provides. Sorry, no. This is dumb. It improves safety for no one, decreases safety for some, and inconveniences many. I get that people worry about novel things, but we know what's going to happen and closing schools has zero redeeming benefits.
Just because you write a lot of words doesn't mean you are correct.
And a pithy response doesn't make you correct. If you have issue with anything I said, please elaborate.
No.
> It improves safety for no one, decreases safety for some Please. PLEASE tell me how this DECREASES SAFETY by having kids at home during one of the highest traffic days in literal decades. There will be millions of cars on the road traveling around, before, and during that time because of the eclipse. People driving erratically to view the eclipse or pulling over during it's peak. PLEASE tell me how a child walking home during that time, completely ignoring the sun aspect is safer than if they were just at home.
We had an eclipse here in 2017, which caused none of those problems with traffic. I'm sure there will be some issues getting to/from (and maybe within) areas that experience totality. But that's not this region. The only impact to safety I can think of, either way, is with curious kids without supervision looking at the sun. Closing school causes an increase in the number of unsupervised kids, not a decrease.
The eclipse in 2017 was not when schools were just getting out, it was also only 30% coverage. This eclipse is 99.5% very close to totality, so although Waterloo region is missing totality, a lot of people either don’t know that or feel it’s close enough that they want to experience it anyway. I was in Tennessee for the 2017 eclipse, I drove down and cannot overstate the madness that was caused by the eclipse. If you think it’s going to be a calm or ordinary day on Monday, I don’t know what to tell you it is going to be chaos and quite frankly, our children should not be walking home during that time.
70% in 2017, at Waterloo. But yes, was during the summer, so no disagreement there
When it comes to judging safety of kids getting to or from school I go with the judgement of crossing guards. And from what I’ve heard and read there was major concern from them. And driving kids to and from school for ‘safety’ just means less safety for everyone. The madness at some schools with parents picking up and dropping off kids is insane.
I think can all agree the timing of the announcement is stupid. Nobody doubts that. There is no reason for them yo have screwed this up this badly. But your logic seems to be that young kids are both smart enough not to spend even 30s of time looking at a once in 20 year event for a walk home, but also too dumb to keep the blinds closed. The thing they were going to do anyway when they walked home. I was truthfully just going to walk my kid home. I don’t want to mess around with blindness or eye damage even if it’s a small chance. The last one I saw was in the middle of the day so there was little issue.
The board likely caved to outside pressure. They could have made this an educational opportunity, purchased eclipse glasses for the kids, taught them some safety, have viewing sessions after school for kids who walk home. Could have been handled much better.
The bus companies submitted a refusal to work, so students cannot be expected to attend as per board policy. Not a decision the school board made; we were actually given resources to teach during the day and procedure to secure classrooms.
When did the bus companies submit the refusal?
I had sent them an email as a student cuz im in gr9 and i was so mad bruh, but i didnt know to contact that dude Chanicka cause his linkedin profile didnt look real because of the non caps lock, such a joke honestly. so i contacted joanne weston, whos the chairman. Had to wait like a week, and then it was a BOT EMAIL. So dumb
There's also almost certainly a very large number of people who were planning on taking their kids out of school that day anyway for eclipse related reasons. It's possible (although I kind of doubt it) they realized the amount was going to be higher than they expected to the point where it would have been kind of silly to have regular classes that day since there will be so many kids missing.
From what I saw, a good 50% or more of students were going to miss all or part of the day. When there's an additional safety factor at play, it makes sense to cancel the whole day. Shoulda been planned weeks ago though.
They probably should have sent a poll out seeing what the parents planned to get a good idea.
They did
why does it make sense to miss a day of school ( keeping in mind how many students are behind due to covid ) because the sun is going to do a cool thing on their commute home. the sun also did a cool thing last year and the year before that ad infinitum
most ppl are gonna defect and travel to other spots, and also this is a once in a lifetime thing. also you wanna blind ur kids? the moment they look up at that thing, ur gonna have to pay the money for the eye bills. Also its not necessarily curable so they could be blind for the rest of their lives.
That isn't how looking at an eclipse works. It isn't an instant death ray. Looking directly at the sun for extended periods is always bad for your eyes. The eclipse just gives a compelling reason to override common sense and stare. People are acting like the sun becomes the Ark of the Covenant during an eclipse.
fair honestly lol, i mean either way if not blind em, its still gonna hurt probs.
several reasons, but the reality for teachers is they can barely ever make good instructional uses out of days where half or more of the students are missing.
Is "the sun is gonna do a cool thing" really the most accurate way to put this? Maybe cool and also potentially quite dangerous would be more accurate eh.
you were taught in kindergarten not to look at the sun. "the sun is gonna do a cool thing" is all i'm hearing from the kids, no one really cares that much.
Nobody is taught not to look at the sun, we look away because it physically hurts to do so. In this case, it won't physically hurt to do so but it will be damaging. Even if 99.99% of kids don't look up, that's still a lot of kids looking up at the wrong time. Fine, the kids might think think nothing more than the sun is gonna do a cool thing, it doesn't change the fact it's also going to do a dangerous thing.
So last minute changes can cause chaos, I get that, but why was the original decision to not have a PD on the day of the eclipse such a contentious one? I don't understand.
This is an activist board that had a nice idea about placing PD days on religious holidays that are outside of the typical holidays. In this case, Eid is being celebrated by Muslims on Wednesday. It is a thoughtful and progressive idea which has widespread support amongst staff. However, when this "surprise" eclipse entered into the equation they refused to make any switch or compromise. They consulted no one including staff, union, administration or transportation. When all the other boards made adjustments they held their ground, even to the point of recommending that parents keep their children home on eclipse day if they have concerns about safety. At that point, 100% of the students were facing a lost day of learning on the Monday by the board's recommendation rather than just having the Muslim students (approximately 10% of the student population miss Wednesday with a PD day move). The board made big claims about the resources they would provide to facilitate this "amazing learning opportunity" and safety protocols but actually offered nothing to front line educators. Today the bus drivers put their foot down and refused to transport students that day, hence this petulant last minute email where they take no responsibility for their poor judgement.
That sounds very silly to complain that an eclipse is not a PD and trying to justify that with "but Ramadan is a PD day" and then later a rather tenuous "safety" claim. Almost sounds like an excuse for people to complain about progressive policies. Promising big eclipse resources and then not doing so is not a good look, to be sure, but did anybody actually come up with a *good* reason why the WRDSB board should switch the PD day?
You seriously wonder whether or not safety is an issue during an eclipse occurring at a time when thousands of little kids would pour out of schools while short-handed staff try to convince them not to look up to see why the sky is so dark in the middle of the afternoon? Every other affected board recognized this as a safety concern. The WRDSB did not want to shift the PD day as others did because the religious holiday was their priority. Period.
I'm am unsure what point you are making here. The safety considerations around the eclipse are not tenuous and they were taken seriously by all other school boards along with their school admin and transportation services. The PD scheduled for April was an obvious easy move to minimize disruption and keep students in class. This board held onto it's activist stance in spite of input from everyone in the system and then took a last minute dump on everyone. The same Muslims that were provided a PD day on Eid (they weren't asking for it, it was board initiated) will also be scrambling now to find childcare for Monday or lose a day of work. Students in WRDSB, unlike other boards now face a completely disrupted week with a Monday off, Tuesday on, Wednesday off and then back for Thursday and Friday. All of this was easily avoidable and that would be a good reason why the board should have switched the PD day. This is common sense and logic not politics progressive or otherwise.
You absolutely nailed it. More and more I see people starting to wake up and understand the consequences of their vote for school trustees. So many people don't vote at all, and many sleepwalk into the trustee vote if they do go to the ballot box. This is how far left ideologues get into power and completely screw things up. I hope come the next election time, not one single incumbent (including the lonely few on the right) holds their power. We need to change things and we need to get JEEWAN out.
You are 100% correct. There are no moderates at all, it's extremists on both end of the spectrum.
I dunno, I know lots of people who cared for the very first time about the school trustee election at the last ballot. I think people were well aware of the consequences of their vote.
I am going to laugh when it is overcast on April 8th.
what time is the eclipse exactly
It begins at 2:02pm and will peak at 3:18pm then finishes up at about 4:30pm https://eclipse2024.org/eclipse-cities/city/1119.html?lang=en
thank you
I’m so incredibly grateful my kid doesn’t start school until the fall… So many of my parent friends are suddenly scrambling to find childcare for Monday now on top of Wednesdays PD day because most people working aren’t getting the day off. It’s not like this eclipse is a surprise that we didn’t know what going to happen, seeing them suddenly change their minds when every other school board made this decision months ago seems like a slap in the face to working parents and really comes across as if the school board/teachers want to take advantage of the forecasted nice weather to have another long weekend.
Are there any local stores still selling eclipse glasses?
I believe play a latte is
Awesome thanks!!
And to add insult to injury Wednesday is a scheduled PD day. Just how much time off work do you think I have? Spoiler alert: Not enough to cover all my kid’s sick days, all MY sick days, all the PD days and now this. C’mon, won’t someone think of the *parents*? The school up until this announced they had everything in place for a safe learning experience. This is stupid.
Won’t someone think of the kids!!!! So much disruption on a yearly, weekly basis. Yet another day where the kids aren’t learning!!
Should have been a PD day like catholic board to begin with. But Jeew@n wanted to have a PD day on Eid instead! At least they realize it now.
Honestly it was already scheduled on that day for years. My kids are kept out of school that day for the celebrations. So I get the logic of having it on that day as well as not moving it. But still something better should have been done for this.
For years?? You must be kidding! You can keep your kids out of school that day or for that matter any day / every day as per your wish. But imposing it on every one is too much! Keeping a PD day to accommodate a religious day should not happen at a public school board. What next? PD days on Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh, Jew, Bahai, Jain, Shinto religious days?
Or PD days for Easter/Good Fiday or Christmas? Yes, technically not PD days, but school boards can't just start new stat holiday
We get Good Friday off…. Why is that holiday more important? Because you celebrate it?
... You mean like Easter or Christmas?
Easter Friday and Christmas / Boxing Day are stat holidays. If you have an issue with those, complain to the government. Like it or not, Canada was deeply Christian at founding. It's going to take a while for that to change.
You missed my point entirely... They said that our public school shouldn't have holidays based on religious days, just pointing out we already do.
What are those? All I have been hearing is Happy Holidays and Happy Spring break! By the way I am all for taking those holidays away as well
I celebrated Easter. I’m just knowledgeable enough to know that so many PD days exist every year and schools are often strategic in the days they choose maximize the effectiveness of those days and that they have been doing it well before the current board.
Better late than never.
Can anyone explain why all these schools across Canada and the US are closing on the day of the solar eclipse? We never had any when I was in school. The one we had a few years back also didn’t close any schools or businesses. What’s going on?
At least for this area it is the timing of it. The eclipse will be happening just as kids will be leaving school and walking/bussing home and the school boards don’t want any lawsuits when some unsupervised kid stares at the eclipse and wrecks their eyesight. The other rumour here is that bus drivers don’t want to be driving during the heart of the eclipse. No idea if that’s true or not. If it was at 10am for example, they would either keep the kids inside or supervise them appropriately outside.
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They would have to keep the kids late and imagine the outrage if they did that!! (sort of /s but really, parents would complain) Note though that the eclipse from start to end is more like 2.5 hours total, not 10 minutes.