Tampabay.com
APRIL 04, 2008

Planning for Good Friday

When it comes to setting school holidays, it increasingly looks like there's the Hillsborough way and the way that everyone else does it. Consider this.

Scheduling of school on Good Friday in Hillsborough County became a major political and media event. Folks battled over religious rights. Employees took advantage of liberal personal day policies. Rumors swirled that teachers would not teach anything important. And kids stayed away by the thousands.

This didn't seem to be an issue for Polk, Pinellas or any of the other counties that stayed open, as the Times reported back in February.

And as Palm Beach schools set their calendar this week, it didn't seem to faze that district, either. Officials talked about when to schedule exams and breaks. But as for the holiday issue, well, it went by so fast that the board actually has to take special action because members noticed after the fact that they had inadvertently scheduled classes for Good Friday next year.

"It's an innocent oversight," superintendent Art Johnson told the Sun-Sentinel.

No muss, no fuss. Just a simple vote planned to change it.

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Gradebook features education articles and insights on schools in Florida, focusing on Tampa Bay area schools. What's the latest from the Florida Department of Education? How is the FCAT being used to compare Florida schools? What's going in on in Tampa Bay schools? Get an insider's view from the Times education reporting team.

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Rebecca Catalanello covers Pinellas County schools. E-mail her: rcatalanello@tampabay.com.

Tony Marrero covers Hernando County schools. E-mail him: tmarrero@tampabay.com.

Marlene Sokol covers Hillsborough County schools. E-mail her: sokol@tampabay.com.

Ron Matus covers Pinellas County schools. E-mail him: matus@tampabay.com.

Jeffrey S. Solochek covers Pasco County schools. E-mail him: solochek@tampabay.com.

Kim Wilmath covers the University of South Florida. E-mail her: kwilmath@tampabay.com.

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