I woke up this morning, went downstairs, read the paper, sipped
my coffee, checked my favorite news sites, played a little Mafia
Wars on Facebook and you know what happened? For the first time
ever I wanted to live someplace else. And do you know where that
someplace else is? No, not wherever Mafia Wars takes place. We’re
talking Chino, California.
I woke up this morning, went downstairs, read the paper, sipped my coffee, checked my favorite news sites, played a little Mafia Wars on Facebook and you know what happened? For the first time ever I wanted to live someplace else. And do you know where that someplace else is? No, not wherever Mafia Wars takes place. We’re talking Chino, California.
Yes, you heard me correctly, Chino. And no, I don’t have a clue where Chino is, other than the fact that it’s in California and I believe it’s named after a style of pants, but I could be mixing that up with khakis. Pants aside, do you know why Chino is awesome?
They just gave students 34 extra days of school. And all 34 days take place this summer.
I KNOW. Doesn’t Chino sound like heaven right now? Can you imagine? 34 extra days to have some time alone that doesn’t involve sneaking a book into the bathroom and pretending you have gastro intestinal issues that require hours of private time. 34 extra days to go grocery shopping by myself without someone either tagging along or calling me every two minutes to ask if I had remembered to stock up on Easy Mac because he and his friends eat boatloads of it every freaking day.
Yes, 34 extra days. Is it just me or is everyone feeling a wee bit jealous of those Chino parents right now?
Of course, there is a flip side. I mean, 34 days of more homework would not work for me. Let’s be honest, I hated homework the first time I went to school, I hate it even more as a parent. I may not have to do it, but I certainly have to stand around chanting, “No completed homework, no play time. No completed homework, no play time,” like a reject from a parenting protest group.
Oh, sure some families had planned vacations and aren’t very happy right now that their children may have to attend school while the family vacation in Hawaii gets cancelled. But is it just me or do you agree that those parents need to look on the bright side? I mean, I would be terribly sad that Junior had to go to school for 34 extra days and that family trip to Bermuda would be called off. But gee, I could probably get my sister to come up and stay with him and then I could turn it into a romantic island adventure with the husband, right? And I swear to you, as I waved from the plane, I would look terribly sad. I might even spout a few tears. Seriously, though … we’re talking tears of joy, people. Tears of joy. Oh, OK. I might miss the kid a bit.
Anyway, summer plans aside, I’m sure you are wondering what wonderful, fantastic chain of events allowed the parents of Chino to enjoy a free summer without hiding in their bathrooms for two months. Well, it turns out that somebody in Chino made a teeny, tiny clerical error. Apparently when you have short days at California schools, those days have to last 180 minutes. But 34 of those days in Chino lasted only 170 or 175 minutes.
And here’s the best part. Now you’d think that the good administrators of Chino could just add up all the missing minutes, slap a couple of extra days onto the calendar and voila! The school year is over. Yeah, turns out it’s not so simple. You see, the state legislature is involved and frankly, we all know what that means. The answer will be complicated, difficult to administer and cost taxpayers money.
Because you see, Chino can’t just slap those days onto the end of the year. Instead those days didn’t count at all. So they basically have a do-over or they can lose $7 million in funding (in case you are curious, Chino says the classes affected are the 3rd, 4th and 5th graders at two schools and will cost the district $200,000).
And to that I say, hello? Gilroy? How about a little love for the parents in your district? Let’s say a little calendar error was to happen. Maybe you lose a couple minutes here, a couple minutes there. I’m not asking for a romantic vacation with the husband. I’m just asking for a big enough error to get me through the summer without hiding in the bathroom. Or maybe just enough time for an uninterrupted trip to Nob Hill?
