New Miami students present petition to keep spring break in full

NEW MIAMI — At the New Miami Board of Education meeting March 24, a pair of seventh-graders presented a letter detailing the results of a survey that indicated the student body’s displeasure with having to make up calamity days during spring break.

Madison Adams and Troy Bales, along with Gabrielle Couch who was sick and couldn’t make the meeting, surveyed 251 middle and high school students, and 221 of them said they don’t plan to attend school during spring break make-up days.

“We would like to go back to making up snow days at the end of the year,” the letter stated, and cited possible repercussions on the school’s Ohio Achievement Assessment Tests and the Ohio School Report card “if students who say they aren’t attending don’t attend.”

“We’ll be so burned out and stressed that our test results could suffer, and so will our school’s attendance percentage,” the letter said. “We believe that making up our snow days at the end of the year will help us be more successful on the OAA, and will lead to a better attitude among the students.”

In addition to the letter, Bales read a list of “Reasons students and teachers of New Miami need spring break.” Among the reasons were:

• “Students that are failing could use that week to get caught up on their missing work.”

• “Most students would rather make up snow days at the end of the year because we have a long summer coming up, and we usually miss school.”

• “By the time spring break comes we are mentally exhausted, and we look forward to it because it’s a long needed break and we can focus for the rest of the year with less stress.”

• “The weather is out of our control, and it shouldn’t affect our vacation that we have earned.”

Board president Randy Cook told the students he would take their recommendations under consideration.

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