Satire warning. Perhaps I have heard this incorrectly, but Romeo Community Schools is now has to make up two days of school. They banked 3 days for the 2007-2008 school year and they have now used 5.

***Correction: I have since learned that they get 30 hours of snow days per school year. Romeo has now used 100% of their time and will have to make up any more school hours missed. That’s what school superintendent Joe Beck told me tonight.***

About two weeks ago they canceled school twice in a week. The first was something they are famous for. It was the warmest day in January and they have a long-standing tradition that if it is above 50 degrees all of the teachers go to Stoney Creek Metropark for a picnic and swim instead of teaching our children reading and mathematics. The second cancellation was because it was too windy. On windy days before the Super Bowl teachers are required by the state board of education to fly kites at the Romeo Community Center sledding hill in commemoration of Ben Franklin discovering electricity and in protest of the Village of Romeo’s long-standing stance against adding a wind turbine on Washington Supervisor’s Gary Kirch’s farm.

Of course, the real reason they cancel school on the warmest day of the year is a large percentage of the district’s students live on dirt roads. That’s right, in 2008 roughly 10% of the roads in Macomb County are made of pottery, clay, dirt, and old golf balls. As someone who grew up outside of Michigan I am left to smile and nod when people tell me why they chose to live on a dirt road. (For every person there is a different angle.) Whereas, anywhere else in the world living on a dirt road is a status symbol for poverty. Not so here! In better financial times it was normal to hear real estate agents say, “It’s rural living at its finest!”

But I do have a suggestion for the district. (Just like the rest of this post, it’s tongue in cheek.) When they have to cancel school because it’s too warm in January or February for buses to safely make it down dirt roads, thus hurting the local economy as mom’s and dad’s adjust their schedules to stay home instead of earning money and spending money, the district should charge back the road commission. Then the road commission should charge back tax payers in the form of a road assessment for the dirt roads. Thus, in a decade this problem will go away and we can have more time in the classroom!

I hope kids stay inside today. It’s extremely cold and this is another good day to cancel. This should be day 2, but it’s day 5 and Megan is loving it. She’ll love it until June when she has to make these days up. That is unless RCS cancels another Michigan tradition… Winter break.

• March 5, 2008 -- Solutions for Snow Days? (4)
• April 14, 2008 -- Mark Twain on School Boards (0)
• June 27, 2008 -- Tim Hortons Arrives in Romeo (0)
• June 8, 2008 -- New sidewalk (0)
• April 27, 2008 -- All Day Kindergarten — Good for kids? (1)

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