Lack Of Students Makes 'Lonely' Day

TAMPA - Two words sum up Good Friday in Hillsborough County schools.

"It's lonely."

That from 15-year-old Jaritsa Murcia, a sophomore at Chamberlain High - and one of 77,516 students who the school district said showed up for class on a day that fueled debate in the community and anxiety in schools.

At least 107,945, or 58.2 percent, of students were absent, official district figures show. That number remained in question late Friday, however, because it doesn't match numbers some principals said they counted.

What is known is how unusual a day Friday turned out to be after thousands of teachers, bus drivers and other district personnel said they were going to take personal leave on Friday, a traditional holiday in the district.

How many employees did take off wasn't released Friday, but with few students, it was a day of near-empty parking lots, quiet hallways and classrooms with two or three students.

"I've been in the district 33 years and I've never seen a day like this," said Jeff Boldt, Chamberlain's principal.

How many students showed up is important because the school board wants that data as well as a count of employees who took personal leave days to determine the impact of changing the school calendar to have school on Good Friday.

Student Numbers Not Precise

Principals were told to count heads Friday morning and reported those to the district as well as to reporters. By late afternoon when the district issued its official school-by-school count, some numbers didn't match.

For example: Durant High Principal Pam Bowden told a reporter Friday afternoon that 220 students showed up. The district numbers shows 611.

Also, Boldt's head count at Chamberlain shows 260. The district report shows 386.

"I wonder where they got that from," Boldt said. "It doesn't match my hand body count."

Shortly after being asked for a head count, principals were asked to send in the number of absences. Either way, Boldt said, he had 260 students and can't believe another 126 showed up later.

Every day, school personnel scan attendance cards collected from teachers. That number is the official count sent to the state for funding and other reports. Chamberlain does that during the second class period.

That could be the difference in those two counts on Friday, Boldt said, if fewer cards got scanned because they were locked in teachers' desks or substitutes didn't have access.

Lewis Brinson, the district's assistant superintendent for administration, also unofficially reported low numbers from high schools during the day. He said they came from principals.

Scanned numbers sent to the district mainframe "are as accurate as the person who was on the other end scanning," Brinson said. "Whether they're right or not, these are the official numbers."

"I don't know if scanning created this problem or not," he said. Then he promised, "We're going to get to the bottom of this."

The low numbers in high schools reported by principals are confirmed by teachers.

Ron Melvin, an English teacher at Sickles High, said he had a total of 15 students during six classes and few teachers had more than eight students in any one class.

His students read, preparing for a paper and he mostly graded papers, he said. Still, he felt, "all we are being paid for today is for being babysitters."

"I'd love to teach - we've been instructed not to teach," Melvin said, referring to district policy that no tests can be given or new material introduced on established religious holidays.

At Sickles and other schools, media centers played films all day for classes to access through closed-circuit televisions. Sickles showed "Babe" and "Babe II," Melvin said.

Some students did work, including Murcia, the sophomore from Chamberlain. She caught up with algebra in a computer class with one other student and one teacher.

"I didn't have anything to do at home," Murcia said. "I would rather come to school."

That was also the case for three eighth-graders at Adams Middle School who didn't want to miss a special science class, said Brenda Rouse, mother of 14-year-old Kelsey.

"Their teacher's going to teach anyway," Rouse said. Her 15-year-old son, Conner, opted to stay home, however, and helped set up for services at church.

Rouse picked up her daughter's two friends because no one could figure out if their bus would come, she said.

"The driver had told them she was planning on being out and a substitute was coming. We didn't know what was going to happen,"

402 Bus Drivers Were Absent, District Says

The prospect of a lack of bus drivers on Friday was what concerned district officials the most, causing them to cancel service for thousands.

As it was, buses crisscrossed the county with as few as one student - or none, making two or three runs to get students to school. The district counted bus driver absences Friday - 402 out of 1,050, or 38 percent.

Chamberlain was not one of the 19 schools that lost all regular bus service or the more than 80 that lost hundreds of runs. The most students any of Chamberlain's 24 buses brought in Friday morning was eight; some had one student and one bus had none, Boldt said.

The bus driver shortage led the district to extend the time schools were open - from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. so parents could drop off and pick up students around work hours.

Some did. By 6:05 a.m., two students had arrived at Bay Crest Elementary, a school that lost its eight buses Friday. As at most schools, plenty of staff was on hand to greet students as parents drove to the side door to drop off their kids.

Holiday Is During Spring Break Next Year

School district spokesman Steve Hegarty said Friday afternoon that the district did not have an estimate of how much extra it cost the district for expenses such as substitutes and keeping schools open longer.

Next year, Good Friday falls during spring break, but whether Good Friday will be a school day in the future will be up to the school board.

Allowing teachers to use six of their sick days as they like is important, noted Yvonne Lyons, executive director of the Hillsborough Classroom Teachers Association. Most teachers don't earn vacation and must use sick days to attend funerals or to care for sick family members, she said. "It's the only avenue they have," she said. "That language is not likely to change."

The change this year has roots dating back to December 2004 when the Council on American-Islamic Relations asked the board to recognize a Muslim holy day.

By late 2005, the board was embroiled in debate over whether to schedule any religious holidays off, drawing national attention. It approved a calendar minus Yom Kippur, Good Friday or the Muslim holiday Eid Al-Fitr, then a month later reversed that vote.

This year's calendar was another effort at a nonsecular calendar.