LETTER: Expanding school calendar no solution

To the editor:

Regarding William Troeger’s letter, his ideas about the public school calendar and the building of new schools are hard to believe (“Public school calendars,” March 11 Review-Journal). Have you been to any Clark County School District schools? Have you seen the disrepair, the overcrowding?

Mr. Troeger’s suggested changes to the public school calendar are full of holes. Kids going to school on Saturdays? How would the school district implement that? Are teachers supposed to work six days a week? How will they get paid for that? What parent is going to support kids going to school on Saturdays when there are youth sports leagues, family outings, dance, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, etc.?

Mr. Troeger wrote that most parents work on Saturday. I think most kids have at least one parent off on Saturday, and a lot have two. I understand there are people who work every day of the week, so should kids go to school on Sunday, too?

Do you visit family for the holidays? Many kids and their parents do. Imagine all of the absences and even more crowded airports if schools were in session for most of those two weeks.

Why would we add 120 days to the school year in the first place? I could see 10 to 15 more, but 120? And comparing schools with businesses is a waste of time.

Mr. Troeger also recommended that kids have eight-hour school days, to get acclimated to the real world. Getting a job when they are 16 is the first step to that. I think children have plenty of time before they need to get acclimated to the real world.

It’s about time somebody stepped up for education, and Gov. Brian Sandoval has done that.

NEIL KECK

HENDERSON

The writer is a teacher with the Clark County School District.