THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 12, 1996 TAG: 9601120477
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines
In their move to make up two days missed due to snow this week, city school officials are bracing for a storm of another kind: a clash in holiday observances.
First, employees and parents were angered after they heard one of the make-up days would be Monday, the national observance of Martin Luther King Day.
Then a furor was touched off when Superintendent Roy D. Nichols announced Wednesday that the King holiday would be observed after all and that students would attend school on President's Day, Feb. 19, and Memorial Day, May 27, a revered holiday to remember military veterans who died in wars.
``Especially in a military town, that's going to go over like a lead brick,'' parent Paul L. Beck said Thursday. ``I don't understand why the kids should have a day off for Martin Luther King and we're saying to heck with the veterans and what they stand for. Memorial Day has been around a lot longer.''
As a result of the brouhaha,
Nichols said Thursday chances are good that kids won't attend schools on Memorial Day, either.
``I would personally like to find another alternative,'' Nichols said. ``There are several other options we can use, including Saturdays, and we've got a parent/teacher conference day we could bring in students.''
Nichols said he will seek advice from the School Board when it meets next week.
School officials found themselves in a bind over a district policy that requires bad weather days to be made up on the next available single-day holiday, which is King Day, a federal holiday for the civil rights leader since 1986. In Virginia, Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson are remembered along with King on the day.
Nichols said he decided against holding school Monday because it was only days away and many teachers and families already had made plans.
``It was just too difficult, I thought, to make that turn,'' Nichols said.
That left Presidents' Day and Memorial Day.
Shirley George, president of the Education Association of Norfolk, said her office has been bombarded with complaints over either holiday being used.
``I haven't heard anything about it being a racial thing,'' George said.
``You just can't please everybody.''
In other school districts, Suffolk will hold a make-up day Saturday. Virginia Beach officials said Thursday the schools will make up the snow days March 29 and April 8, which had been set aside for teacher planning and parent/teacher conferences. Portsmouth and Chesapeake have not yet scheduled make-up days.
Virginia Beach last year had a policy similar to Norfolk's but changed it after several complaints. Anne Meek, a spokeswoman for Virginia Beach, said many people feel strongly about their holidays.
``They'd say, `You'd better not take Memorial Day or `You'd better not take Martin Luther King Day,' '' Meek said. ``I had a person upset because we didn't recognize Columbus Day.'' ILLUSTRATION: The policy for making up weather days is angering just about
everyone.
by CNB