329. School Makeup Due to Influenza

Updated: Mar 25, 2022

Reading the news lately shows the dilemma facing the Escambia and Santa Rosa School Boards of coming up with a plan to make up the missed school days caused by the Spanish Influenza. But the more I look at the issues of 2020, the more it reminds me of 1918.

This same problem stared us in the face 102 years ago and the lists of solutions looks about the same as it does today! And just like today, the teachers had different opinions than the academic administrators. The administrators were in favor of a simple "six day a week" implementation until the lost time had been made up. The teachers were proposing a "five day a week" in addition to one week during the Christmas holidays plus an additional twenty days in June. Neither could agree!

The two sides wrangled over it until it was brought before the school board on the 8th of November. But during the meeting, school books and the issue of paying the teacher's for their enforced time off due to the influenza became precedent. But the last word of the school board was there would be NO SATURDAY classes in the agreement, but there would also be no teacher compensation for the time they were off. The teachers were adamant that they had bills to pay and the mandatory time off was not of their doing. The issue went to the lawyers, but after the board meeting it was never brought up again for the remainder of the years.

In the meantime and above it all, Albert S. Edwards, the "superintendent of public instruction" as it was called in those days, tried his best to make both sides happy. It was an impossible job then and it's an impossible job now!