Reinstate President's Day as a School Holiday in Pickens County

A few years ago the Board of the School District of Pickens County decided to no longer give the school children in Pickens County President’s Day off as a holiday, and instead began choosing a random day off either the week before ( this year February 13) or the week of ( 2016 the proposed day off is the Friday after President’s Day). The school districts in Oconee, Anderson, and Greenville, continue to recognize President’s Day as a holiday. As a United States Citizen, a patriot, and a parent, I am apalled the School Board of Pickens County has chosen to no longer recognize this important National and State Holiday.

This Holiday honors the men who worked to establish this great nation and continue to govern it on a daily basis. As a patriot, it is disconcerting that the Board would choose to no longer recognize this holiday that celebrates the Leaders of our Nation. To honor other great American’s ( ex. Martin Luther King Jr.) and not honor our Nation’s Presidents is wrong. If it were not for the vision, sacrifice, and leadership of General Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln, to name a few, this nation in all probability would not exist. How can we not honor them? Why has the Board chosen to do this?

Furthermore, as a working parent who gets very few days off during the year, it is significantly inconvenient and expensive to arrange child care for my children within in the same week, when if the School District chose to honor this holiday, I would be available to care for and spend precious time with my children. I would hope we can all agree that parents spending time with their children is a good thing, and the School District should make efforts to do this whenever possible. If the Board wants to continue to use President’s Day as a work day for school personnel, I would have no objection to that, and offer that as an option for the Board to consider instead of giving the students the next Friday off. It really comes across as a slap in the face to our Nation, and the men who have so honorably tried to serve it, to have students take Friday off in the same week, or the Friday before, when most of our Nation’s citizens are celebrating an actual holiday that recognizes the Leaders of our Nation.

Therefore I respectfully ask the Board of the School District of Pickens County to reinstate President’s Day as a Annual Holiday for the students of Pickens County Schools.