Sunday, January 25, 2009
Take MLK Day off in Floyd and Giles schools
Christian Trejbal
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- Making sense of local elections
- Voters have only themselves to blame
- Money flows freely to local candidates
- Candidates contemplate a little big-box store
From the RoundTable blog
Few commentators last week missed the opportunity to point out that America's first black president was taking the oath of office the day after Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The national holiday to commemorate the great civil rights leader coincided perfectly with President Obama's inauguration.
In Obama's case, at least, King's dream of a nation that judges a man not by the color of his skin but by the content of his character became real.
Most schools closed on King's holiday, as they do every year, but not schools in Floyd and Giles counties.
MLK Day, the third Monday of January, has been a national holiday since Ronald Reagan signed it into law in 1983. The states, however, had to adopt it individually, and some did so more quickly than others. Today all of them recognize it in one form or another.
In Virginia, lawmakers first tied it to Lee-Jackson Day. That odd juxtaposition of Confederate generals and civil rights crusader ended in 2000, when the General Assembly moved Lee-Jackson Day to the Friday before MLK Day.
But just as Congress refused to impose MLK Day on the states, the commonwealth did not impose it on local schools. Most state offices shut down, but school boards and superintendents decide whether classes meet.
The state Department of Education does not track which schools take the day off, but in the New River Valley, it's everyone except the two school systems headed by the Arbogasts. That's father Terry Arbogast and son Terry Arbogast II, the superintendents of Floyd and Giles schools respectively, where only 2 percent of the students in each county are black.
The elder Arbogast did not return calls for nearly three weeks seeking comment and only obliquely answered questions posed by e-mail. At least the younger one was willing to talk about the Giles policy.
Giles schools set the holiday aside as a makeup day. If there are no weather cancellations before it, students and teachers get the day off. This year, there was a snow day on Nov. 18, so class was in session on Monday. Most years there is a snow day.
In the father's schools, they do not even have the pretense. School is in session on MLK Day most years. This year was an exception because it happened to fall at the end of a term. Kids got the day off, but teachers and staff worked.
I am the first to say young people should spend more time in the classroom. In-service and teacher-training days gobble up too much time, and a single snowflake can send everyone into a panic.
Your thoughts
- Should Floyd and Giles schools close for MLK Day? Post to the RoundTable.
If Floyd and Giles school officials worry about losing an academic day, they could tack another day onto the end or the beginning of the year. Both counties are exempt from the inane Kings Dominion law and may therefore start before Labor Day.
Pulaski County schools took MLK Day off as a holiday for the first time this year and plan to continue to do so going forward.
"It is important to us and important to the school board that we honor the contributions of Dr. King," Pulaski Superintendent Don Stowers said.
MLK Day is different in Virginia. This was the heart of the Confederacy, and the battle flag still flies in some corners. Segregation persisted for far too long. The commonwealth fought school integration and banned interracial marriage. It still celebrates Lee-Jackson Day.
Here, of all places, we should set aside a day to commemorate and reflect upon King's work so we never forget how far we have come.
Christian Trejbal is an editorial writer for The Roanoke Times based in the New River Valley bureau in Christiansburg.
