{"id":74637,"date":"2016-10-29T07:06:44","date_gmt":"2016-10-29T11:06:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=74637"},"modified":"2016-10-28T19:09:35","modified_gmt":"2016-10-28T23:09:35","slug":"bill-to-make-election-day-a-student-holiday-will-keep-kids-safe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=74637","title":{"rendered":"Bill to make Election Day a student holiday will keep kids safe"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_43068\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-43068\" style=\"width: 150px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?attachment_id=43068\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-43068\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-43068\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madisoncountycourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Al-Stirpe-150x150.jpg?resize=150%2C150\" alt=\"Al Stirpe\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-43068\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Al Stirpe<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Assemblyman Al Stirpe (D-Cicero) authored legislation\u00a0to add Election Day to the list of days school is not in session (A.6040-B). Stirpe has been pushing the legislation\u00a0in the Assembly\u00a0and has highlighted a renewed urgency to pass it following this year\u2019s contentious presidential campaign. Some schools are already closed to students\u00a0on Election Day because of concerns about safety.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSince so many schools are used as polling places, it only makes sense to make Election Day a day off for students,\u201d said Stirpe. \u201cHaving school in session when anyone can come in off the street is a big risk.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Stirpe\u2019s bill allows school districts to schedule the day as a professional development day or for staff attendance only. Many schools already schedule a staff only day on an alternative day in November. Rescheduling the staff conference day is a zero-cost option for schools. It also allows for a school to <!--more-->appeal its designation as a polling place. Schools are ideal polling places because they\u2019re centrally located, are ADA compliant and usually offer parking.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Jody Manning, District Superintendent for the Onondaga-Cortland-Madison Board of Cooperative Educational Services (OCM BOCES), has strongly supported this proposal in the past and has encouraged districts to schedule a professional development day on Election Day whenever possible.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSafety for all our students has always been \u2013 and will always be \u2013 a top priority,\u201d Manning said. \u201cWe will do everything we can to advocate for this legislation and support our representatives in Albany because of the very real safety issue this addresses.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Many schools require visitors to sign in and provide identification, a measure often suspended on Election Day. The New York State Election Commissioners Association also\u00a0encourages schools to close for the day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Assemblyman Al Stirpe (D-Cicero) authored legislation\u00a0to add Election Day to the list of days school is not in session (A.6040-B). Stirpe has been pushing the legislation\u00a0in the Assembly\u00a0and has highlighted a renewed urgency to pass it following this year\u2019s contentious presidential campaign. Some schools are already closed to students\u00a0on Election Day because of concerns about [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43068,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-top-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43meu-jpP","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madisoncountycourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Al-Stirpe.jpg?fit=226%2C222&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=74637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74637\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/43068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=74637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=74637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=74637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}