Well, at least it's Saturday

Another snowstorm. We've got a good, oh, I dunno, nine inches or so built up right now and it's supposed to continue snowing until at least midnight. It's a wet snow, which is perfect for snowballs and snowmen.

We've had quite a snowy season. According to the National Weather Service, Caribou has seen 144.5 inches of snow so far, as of Wednesday morning. The all-time record for snowiest season in Caribou, Maine is 181.1 inches. (not sure what year) That could happen this season...we've still got March and April left, and May snow is not unheard of. [I'm about 4 hours from Caribou, and we don't get quite as much here, although we get *considerably* more than Portland, which has a total of 90.1 inches, since coastal cities get less snow, and is also more southern]

I've mentioned several times in the past different snow days that we've had. Northern states build a certain number of potential snow days into their calendars. They set a final day of school based on if all of those snow days are used. If they aren't, school gets out for the summer earlier. If more snow days are needed, that extends the school year. Our original last day of school was June 18th. Right now we have used all five snow days that would have made that work out, and an additional 2, so we are at a release day of June 20th. Our school has already changed a workshop day (which was going to be a full day off for the kids) to a half-day, and changed a scheduled half-day to a full day.

Every snow day from school that we have from here out just extends it further. This is the latest my kids have ever been in school. Mark's birthday is the 19th of June, and he has never been in school on his birthday before. I'll be sending in cupcakes.

The kids aren't quite getting that every day they get "off" from school means one more day that they *won't* be spending the day swimming this summer.

I remember when I was a kid, we had a half-day of school on Saturday to make up some of the snow days. It was a totally weird feeling. I remember that not all the kids showed up. Not all the staff was there, either. Oh, the teachers were all there, of course, but they were missing some of the people who weren't needed for just a half-day of school. The school felt odd, off, bigger and echo-y.

I could get behind a half-day of school on Saturday to make up some of this, rather than lose any more of summer vacation. I say that, of course, but I wonder how much work would actually get done in class that day, how much learning would really take place. I don't much like days that the kids are just killing time in the building to meet a quota. I recognize that there are a lot of days where it's near impossible to get kids (and sometimes teachers) to settle down to business, most notably the day before a vacation, and pretty much the whole last week of school anyway, although they try. But still. I wish the kids wouldn't have to be sitting at their desks while a gorgeous Maine summer day passes them by.

Chime in, people. Tell me what you think. mk