Letter to the Editor: Student Performance and Time Off

The new board should get serious about making changes to address student performance. One of the problems related to student performance is too much time off. My teenagers enjoy the multiple of days or weeks off during a school year; however I have found over the years there performance slipssignificantly after time off. The balance of the grading period after the numerous days off the kids play catch up until back in the groove and end up with poorer grades due to all the time off.

At a recent BoE meeting a representative for the teachers spoke in favor of keeping the winter vacation with one reason being it reduces germ levels in the school, give me a break! The teachers union and administrator’s need to be accountable to improving student performance and realize they have a sweet arrangement on time off even with consolidation of winter and spring break.

Coaches seem to be able to push our students to perform in sports why teachers and administrators aren’t doing so in the classroom needs to be addressed? Teachers and administrators should be let go if they can’t lead and push all there students to perform. This I believe needs to include reaching out to parents and guardians of students that are under performing and get them involved in helping with the student’s success. The new superintendent needs to push administrators, teachers, parents, and guardians to be accountable to their students’ performance if Windsor is to lose its stigma of a town with a bad school system.

Parents are asked to take a survey by January 15th regarding vacation time and the school calendar. I’m confident consolidating winter and spring vacation into one vacation as do private schools and many other public schools do will be one way to improve student performance.