This might mean either shortening some scheduled vacations, or adding days to the end of the school year. Either option would bring a flurry of protests. Many families will consider it inappropriate to impinge on their already-scheduled trips.
Should the extra days be necessary, the Department of Education will notify local districts around the state. Districts who fail to comply risk receiving a letter of reprimand or other disciplinary action. The worst consequence would be a reduction to the funding which the district receives from the state. This type of discipline is often threatened but rarely enacted, and to date, no district has been so disciplined because of snow days.
In any case, students in Pioneer High School are not eager to surrender vacation days, and also not eager to see school go further into the summer. As much as students enjoy ‘snow days,’ they’d rather not have any more of them if it means compromising the vacation schedule for the rest of the school year.
The teachers who teach German at Pioneer - Robert Lederer, Andrew Smith, and Astrid Tackett - are especially concerned because they have scheduled a trip. Pioneer High School students have been invited to Ann Arbor’s sister city in Germany. This trip, in June and July 2015, marks the 50th anniversary of this sister city partnership.
Although there have been many trips from Pioneer High School, Huron High School, and Skyline High School, this trip is of special importance because of the 50th anniversary. German teacher Robert Lederer is scheduled to lead this trip.
If the school year should be extended further into June because of snow days, or because of any other reason, this would complicate the already-intricate travel arrangements being made for the Pioneer High School group.
German teacher Andrew Smith, who has led or co-led such exchange trips since 1983, and German teacher Astrid Tackett, who has organized student travel and exchange programs in the district, teach a combined three hours of German per day during the current academic year at Pioneer.
Andrew Smith teaches other classes at Huron High School, and Astrid Tackett teaches other classes at Tappan Middle School.
German teacher Robert Lederer teaches five hours of German daily at Pioneer High School and does not teach at other schools.
Comments and remarks from students who’ve participated in these trips and exchange programs have been consistently positive. It seems that almost every year, a student makes the comment that she or he will celebrate her or his birthday in Europe because of the Pioneer High School German program!
The official name for the exchange programs of the AAPS high schools is ‘The German-American Partnership Program.’ More than one university administrator has made the remark that participation in programs like Pioneer’s GAPP is an important factor in the college admission process.
It would be a shame for this valuable GAPP program to be compromised because of snow days.
