Tampa, Florida - Hillsborough students start the New Year in class, while many of their classmates around the Bay area extend their winter break by a day. It has affected attendance.
"We're at 85 percent attendance rate. Typically 95 percent, 96 percent is on average," says Erik Holley, Principal at Anderson Elementary. Holley says, "They are working hard."
Fourth grade teacher Casey Becker says even though a few students are missing, the rest are taking advantage of the class time.
"Every time you have the students in the classroom here learning, it's good for the student. It's more experience, more practice for them getting better at what they need to know."
School district officials decided a 2-week winter break is long enough. Students will have a four day weekend this month, plus midterm exams and FCAT to study for.
Steve Hegarty, with the Hillsborough School District's office of communications says, "We had the week of Thanksgiving off. We have to make those days up somewhere or have the school year go into July."
Hillsborough is not alone, but it is in the minority. The Florida Department of Education's website shows 21 school districts ended the winter break 12/30/11, but not all of the kids are back in school. After checking those district's websites and calling each one, we confirmed only seven of 67 school districts resumed classes Monday.
Besides Hillsborough those districts include Broward, Desoto, Escambia, Okaloosa, Santa Rosa and Sarasota. A few school districts had teachers return to work as a professional work day without students.
Some parents say Hillsborough school district officials could have waited one more day to return kids to class.
"Very surprised, I had to plan ahead for it. My job is surprised too. It's been a bit of an inconvenience," says Rosalie Lawrence, the mother of a first grader at Anderson Elementary. Rosalie says, "I think there are enough days throughout the school year. They could have compensated and made a better decision."
Principal Holley has sat on the district's calendar committee. He says the decision is a difficult one. "You're never going to make everybody happy. What you have to do is what's best for the most, what's best for children, what's best for the calendar," says Holley.
Rosalie's daughter Serenity says she enjoyed going back to school. "I wanted to learn more, because I want to get better at math," says Serenity.
Parent Adam Bourland admits there was some confusion about the start of school.
"We called four friends who have kids, and no one could come to an agreement about whether we had school today. We had to go on the website," says Adam.
The district did send out a parent link recording reminding parents of classes resuming today after the Tampa Tribune incorrectly posted in its Sunday paper schools were closed. The mistake was corrected on the front page of the Tribune today.
The district's plans to start school today ended Adam's family travel plans a day early. Adam says, "But the flip side of that we did get to spend some time together me and my wife so it was nice."
Hillsborough school district officials say attendance is always lower than normal on a Monday back from a long break. When students returned from the winter break last year, attendance stood at 90 percent. That's eight percent higher than this year.
Sarasota School District officials say the district gives the public 30 days to voice their opinion to the school board before a calendar is approved.
The district will be approving the school calendar for the next two school years at the school board meeting scheduled for January 17th.
Isabel Mascarenas