Kids Home Today

We had 48 hours taken away from our PTO and put into this bank of sick days. So we didnt gain anything.

I told an old lady I was helping earlier today that not nearly enough kids lose appendages to frostbite anymore when she was talking about her kid wearing shorts to work at a school. He’s in his 30’s. There was always one kid that had a horror story though when I was younger, deformed nose or ears, a stink finger, something. I will say that there was a below zero rule in the house though that required us to come in and warm up every half hour or so when it was below zero. The moon boots and knit mittens weren’t exactly great at keeping moisture and wind out and heat in.

Did you guys have to wear bread bags inside your moon boots???

Not sure how our parents thought that was a good thing

Heck yeah, we had two pairs of bags each so one could dry out when we came in for the warmup and we could wear a dry set out.

CaptainMusky wrote:

We had 48 hours taken away from our PTO and put into this bank of sick days. So we didnt gain anything.

Our Union got us the 48 hours of sick and safe time plus we keep our normal vacation and personal days. It’s a pretty sweet deal for the workers but it’s a nightmare for the company. They went round and round with the company and finally the state stepped in and said that’s how it’s going to be.

CaptainMusky wrote:

We had 48 hours taken away from our PTO and put into this bank of sick days. So we didnt gain anything.

yea that’s the problem with company sponsored PTO. They take your VACATION away anytime you miss work.

When I was a union thug negotiating agreements every employer tried that.

My response no, not now, not ever!

Ripjiggen wrote:

Damned if you damned if you don’t.

This pretty much sums it up. Those making the decisions can’t win.

Riverrat wrote:

Heck yeah, we had two pairs of bags each so one could dry out when we came in for the warmup and we could wear a dry set out.

didn’t have 2 bags but the folks did the bread bag deal.. late 50’s and early 60’s yup I’m that old..

My opinion may have been different a few years ago.

But I’m glad my kids didn’t have to go out at -20 this morning. I was out and about today and anywhere with some exposed wind and it was flat out dangerous IMO.

I’ve seen too many bus issues and substitute bus drivers particularly in the last couple years glad I didn’t have to worry about it today.

North branch had a scheduled break for Monday and Tuesday so that worked in my kids favor.
I was also home but with a sick baby. I wasn’t complaining though, only times I went out side was to let the dogs out. And even they didn’t want to play, it was to cold. We got our fair share of it fishing on Sunday.

Dan wrote:

Seems like every time school is late or cancelled I’ll hear someone at work say “they cancelled school for THIS??” I understand that unexpectedly having kids at home is a big challenge for a lot of people, but oftentimes I feel like that’s all that matters to some. I think some (not all) people that got wound up about school closures during Covid weren’t worried about in-person learning or social interaction, they were upset that they had to figure out a way to take care of their kids during the day.

For sure there are parents who just resent being forced to spend time with their kids. But going back some years, I can understand how a forced day off with no pay was hard on some families.

Until MN forced all employers to finally allow family care to take the same priority as being sick, there were a lot of people who had to take a full day with zero pay to stay home with their kids. That’s was a 20% pay reduction off of week’s check and to somebody who was barely getting by, that was a real kick in the teeth.

So yeah, I totally understand it wasn’t always just about parents wanting to avoid their kids. Some used to be really hit hard by a snow day, hopefully now that’s much less of an issue.

The reality is we were going into distance learning the year before COVID hit for our ABE program. Testing it in the elementaries too. Once we got technology levy dollars and bought every kid a Chromebook the end was here. Now schools can call a “distance learning” day whenever they need to. ‘This has no impact on learning” so they say. sure…………….
You would be shocked and dismayed to know how “available’ teachers are during these days. Our high school teachers pressed the union to ask for 1 hour per day to be available to students on distance learning days………………

https://rc.education.mn.gov/#mySchool/orgId–10191014000__p–3

This should get you there on the MDE website
Click on “MN report card”

Type in your school name. All kinds of data , click on the categories on the left to further winnow it down.

Sorry, it’s already there when you open it – after you click where it says “Statewide” and then type in your school name