As the Boston public school year comes to a close, some parents are using their vacation days and calling in favors to family — all to accommodate two consecutive half days of school filled with parties, field trips, and movie-watching.
It has become a familiar end-of-year ritual for families, the result of a state law requiring public schools to operate for at least 180 days in an academic year.
To fulfill that requirement, students attend school until 12:30 p.m. for two consecutive days, much to the chagrin of working parents who must find transportation and supervision for their young children.
On Tuesday, parents at James Condon Elementary School in South Boston had one word to describe the schedule: “silly.’’
“They’re not even doing anything,’’ said Erin Manning, the mother of three Condon students.
Manning’s children, along with others interviewed, reported spending the morning coloring, playing, and engaged in other nonacademic pursuits. To pick up her children from school, Manning said that she will have to leave work over two hours early on both days.
Jennifer Davis, the grandmother of a first-grader, also had to miss work to manage the new pickup time.
“I have a set work schedule, and I had to rearrange it,’’ Davis said. “It’s silly, these two days did a lot of damage, we could have ended earlier, and now the traffic is unreal.’’
Boston Public Schools spokesman Dan O’Brien said that the practice of ending the school year on two early release days has existed for decades. It allows principals and teachers to complete grading and other end-of-the-year work. He also said the district has not received any complaints from parents about the schedule.
Still, O’Brien said the district’s attendance rate on Tuesday was 75 percent, compared to the average daily attendance rate of 91 percent.
Richard Stutman, the longtime president of the Boston Teachers Union, agreed that teachers like the half days, and he said they were not a cause for concern.
“I honestly didn’t care what my daughter did the last week of school,’’ Stutman said. “Kids take the opportunity to get out early and go visit former teachers. Psychologically, they know it’s coming to an end.’’
But he said the lack of educational activities at the end of the year underscores a bigger issue: how rising classroom temperatures impede students’ ability to learn.
“For the last few days, yes, they’re missing out. But for the last three weeks it’s virtually impossible to get much done because many schools aren’t air-conditioned,’’ said Stutman, who taught math to middle and high schoolers for 11 years. “We have classrooms that can get up to 95 degrees. Very little is getting done in those classrooms.’’
That contributes to the dip in enrollment toward the end of the year, he said.
O’Brien, the BPS spokesman, said 32 of the district’s 125 schools have air conditioning.
At the Condon, parent Christy Le said she thought it was important for her daughter to attend school Tuesday. But she sympathized with parents who struggle with the half-day arrangement.
“I have my own business, but with other parents, I know that they take the train or a bus to work, and that’s difficult,’’ said Le, the mother of a first-grader. “I used to have to do that, and every time you have to rush to school, rush back to work in the middle of the day, it’s hard.’’
Other parents said they were happy their children could celebrate the end of the school year with friends.
“I feel like it’s worth it — that’s the way it was when I was in school,’’ said Jalisa Fuller, the mother of a student in prekindergarten. “Nothing has changed.’’
Catie Edmondson can be reached at catie.edmondson@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter at @CatieEdmondson.
