Mincey’s Musings
Year One, Week Fifty-One

Welcome to 2019! If you are reading this, you have made it through yet another year of successes and challenges and are primed for another chapter of life’s adventure.

The stretch between New Year’s Day through Easter is hardest for me. School has been my life in some form or other since 1970, and I am still conditioned to the school year calendar. After the excitement that builds up through the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, there seems to be a letdown. The days are short, often chilly, damp, gray or downright cold, and the federal holidays observed during the winter just don’t seem to have the same thrill as Christmas. Valentine’s Day never seemed to have the same hold on me as an adult as it did when I was an elementary student.

There is one thing I look forward to—snow. I always feel cheated in a year when there doesn’t seem to be a lot of snowfall. Even though I liked school, I still enjoyed those snow days at home, and I still do.

I remember the winter of 1977. I remember it snowed so much that there was only one day of school the entire month. I remember being absent that day, for even though the bus ran, my dad thought it was too risky for me to attend. I believe that school was dismissed early that day. I would practically swear to this on the witness stand, but perhaps the years have shaded my memory.

And the record does show my memory lacking. I was in Ms. Marie Lynch’s homeroom that school year. The first day of school was September 7, 1976. The final day of school before Christmas was Friday, December 17. A look back at Ms. Marie’s attendance register indicates that we attended school on January 5th, 6th, and 7th, 1977 (Wednesday through Friday), then not again until Wednesday the 19th. There was not another day of school until Friday the 28th, then Monday the 31st. I will concede that my recollection of only one day of school in January was probably the 19th. I do recall being absent the one day in question, but Ms. Marie did not count me absent in the register. Phillip Richardson is listed just below me, and he was absent on the 19th. Possibly she got the mark in the wrong line. She credited me with perfect attendance in her register, and Phillip missed more than just the one day. I don’t recall receiving a perfect attendance award for that year.

The Union County Board of Education minutes for the February 3, 1977 meeting state:

13. Motion DeVault, seconded Whited to approve the letter Mr. Burke wrote to the Commissioner of Education regarding a plan to make up days missed due to adverse climatic conditions. The plan calls for teaching during the previously designated inservice days and vacation days, and for teaching on Saturdays. Mr. Burke stated that State Law requires for us to spend at least (175) days of the school term as (teaching) classroom days. He said that we have no choice but make the lost time up, and that he believes this is the best way. Motion Carried.

I do vividly recall having to go to school on eight Saturdays to make up those missed days. My health/science teacher Martha Warwick noted in her register the dates of those Saturdays (February 12th, 19th, 26th, March 5th, 12th, 19th, 26th, April 2nd. Attendance was low on those Saturdays; in our homeroom it ranged from three absent on February 12th to thirteen on April 2nd. We were dismissed at either 1:00 or 1:30 on those Saturdays, and the lunches on those days were more like picnics to me. On those days we were treated to hamburgers and potato chips! I don’t recall every being served chips for school lunch until then. I did enjoy those Saturday school “picnic” lunches.

The usual lunch fare at Maynardville Elementary was more traditional, and many of the foods I liked (soup/green beans, peas, beef stew, cornbread, chili, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, sloppy joes, fish sandwiches, crinkle fries, spaghetti, and rolls that honestly would melt in the mouth). Other foods I never learned to tolerate (e.g., greens, blackberry cobbler, peaches, pears, apples, oranges, bananas). Some I didn’t like then but have since acquired a taste for (e.g., sauerkraut and weiners, cole slaw).
Few meals in my life have I ever enjoyed more than the turkey and dressing lunches served at Thanksgiving and Christmas. How good the traditional smells of the school (pencil shavings, chalk, mop water, mop oil for the floors, books) smelled when combined with the smell of those wonderful lunches!

Bit I digress. While students were only concerned about the snow and make up days, the custodial staff had other concerns, as noted in the Board minutes for February 3, 1977:

16. Discussion regarding pay for custodians due to extra hours worked during the bad weather. Mr. Burke stated that our janitors and maintenance men have been doing excellent jobs of keeping our water pipes from bursting; and of keeping an eye out for potential breakdowns. He said that some of them have even walked to their schools located 4 to 5 miles away. Mr. Burke said that these people must be paid for this extra work. There was discussion regarding the cost of coal and electricity and other problems facing the Board as a result of the bad weather. Mr. Burke stated that our furnaces are requiring more coal which is becoming scarce to get; that the cost of electricity is soaring and no provision was made in this year’s budget for such escalating costs. No provision was made for the fact that we would be using the new academic addition and the new vocational school which both have central heat and air. The amount in the budget allotted this year to electricity is virtually the same as allotted last year. He said that we are facing serious budget problems. That an already impractical budget is now being strained by bad weather. That we would have had a hard time making it through the year on this budget anyway—even if we had no bad weather. Our electric bill for January was $5,778.94, $2,820.01 on the high school alone . . . No action taken.

17. Motion Lay, seconded Sharp to pay custodians as regularly scheduled (pay them now) for the extra hours they have worked because of bad weather; and therefore not have them wait until the end of the year to receive payment for these day worked. However, if funds were not available for the 9th month pay for the custodians during the last month of the school year, then the custodians would be asked to wait until sufficient amounts could be budgeted into next year’s budget to meet the demands of back pay . . . Motion Carried.

The sad thing about snow days in school—kids and teachers enjoy them during the winter, but are never happy with having to pay them back in the spring. Union County’s school calendars have for several years extended the school day to build in additional time that can be used in lieu of snow days. The number of days accrued in this way has varied over the years from ten to thirteen. Even this system has drawbacks—if there is no snow, the school year cannot be dismissed early just because the additional time was not used for inclement weather.

With the snow and Saturday attendance, the last day of the school year was Friday, June 10, 1977. Next week I’ll share about another year of snow and its challenges.