Washington State Superintendents Pushing For Shorter School Year? Really? All Of Them?

Below is a post of the Associated Presses misleading story about a handful of supers who signed a letter suggesting the school year be shortened, instead of any one of a number of other options including keeping kids in school and shortening their or others work summer.

The worst part about the story which aired and was printed all over the state Monday was that it was not "Washington Superintendents". It was a handful of supers from up near Marysville. When contacted the Washington State Association of School Superintendents responded, "Not us." So I call the respective districts in the Everett area, the source of the original story. Andy Muntz of the Mukilteo district told me, "We signed the letter, but it is the supers in the EDS 189 based in Anacortes."

Dr. Jennings (they are all doctors you know) the guy who runs the ESD was "out" today. "Very busy" his aide told me. He will call back tomorrow.

So more on this tomorrow, but for today, it isn't Washington Superintendents. It's a handful. Come on you folks at the AP, what is with the drama? This story ran in numerous print papers that failed to check it out, and King 5 picked it up and regurgitated it.

More tomorrow as in, "Hey, I have an idea, let's keep our salaries, and bennies and pensions running, and let's save some money by not teaching kids. That'll save some money."

Washington school superintendents are pushing for a shorter school year as a budget fix.

The Daily Herald of Everett reported that in letters and meetings, educators are telling lawmakers that taking a week off the calendar spreads any budget cut more fairly than other money-saving proposals such as reducing state aid to rural or property-poor districts.

School leaders also contend that after three years of diluting programs as state dollars declined, going to a shorter year might stem any further erosion.

There's been talk about a shorter school year in the past couple of legislative sessions.

Washington is not the first to consider this path. California, for example, dropped from 180 days to 175 days in 2009.

Other states, such as Oregon, allowed districts to go to a four-day school week.

The Associated Press