School’s make-up day plan made perfect sense

Regarding Larry Mann’s June 12 letter to the editor (“SK teachers paid for hours they didn’t work”), Dec. 18 was a full day canceled due to snow.

Dec. 19 was a half day canceled due to snow.

Thus, South Kitsap students had one full day and one half day of school to make up.

The full make-up day was Feb. 17 (originally a non-school day).

The half-day make up was on June 15 (originally a non-school day).

May 22 was originally a full day and June 12 a half day (originally the last day of school).

We swapped those two days, so that May 22 was a half day (the Friday of the Memorial Day weekend) and June 12 became a full day.

This eliminated having two consecutive half days on the last two days of school.

If we kept May 22 as a full day and set June 12 to a full day, then we would have required teachers and staff to work for an additional half day, which was not in the district’s budget and not in our teacher and staff contracts.

Teachers and staff fully worked and were fully paid, according to the 2008-2009 negotiated contracts.

Mr. Mann accused SKSD of financial misconduct and fraud. The Port Orchard Independent gave him the forum to make such incredulous accusations without bothering to check for facts.

Frankly, that is more troublesome and disappointing to me than reading another of Larry Mann’s uneducated rants.

The POI could have, at least, given SKSD the opportunity to present a counter letter at the same time where people could read both sides of the story and decide which is credible and which is a fraud.

Larry Mann and the Port Orchard Independent owe SKSD and our staff an apology. Doubting that will happen, let it suffice that this letter can at least set the record straight.

KATHRYN SIMPSON

South Kitsap

School District

Board of Directors

Editor’s Note: All readers have the same opportunity to use this forum to express their views — and respond to others’ views.

Ethically speaking, however, we cannot pre-emptively notify people we suspect may disagree with an upcoming letter in order to dilute its impact.

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