Christopher Gabrieli

Staf Photo by Dan Henry Linda McCullum walks with her children Larry Sturdivant Jr., upcoming 2nd grader, Mattie McCullum, 3rd grade, and Early McCullum Jr., 4th grade to pick up report cards and say their summer break goodbyes during the last official day of school at Tommy F. Brown Academy in downtown Chattanooga on Wednesday.

For some Hamilton County students, the last day of school didn’t even require getting out of bed.

Thousands of students filled out self-addressed envelopes last week to avoid having to come to school Wednesday to pick up their final report cards. Others just decided they’d rather sleep in.

Although there was no teaching of pupils on Wednesday, the day counted as one of the 174 days of instruction for Hamilton County’s public school system. And the district’s fleet of 268 buses ran on usual routes Wednesday — costing about $50,000 — even though most bus drivers said they hauled only a few students.

“Normally, my bus is pretty full, but I had only one student today,” said Rhonda Albert, a bus driver whose route serves much of East Hamilton County for Ooltewah High School, Hamilton County’s biggest school.

“Most high school kids like to sleep in when they can,” said Finley King, principal of Central High School, where only a few dozen of the school’s 1,200 students came to school Wednesday morning to pick up report cards.

Tara Holmes, a rising junior at Soddy-Daisy High School, said it generally was accepted for students to skip the last day of school, so she, too, stayed home.

“I just didn’t want to go,” she said.

The state will count a day of school if students are in class for at least three hours and 15 minutes, said Rick Smith, Hamilton County Schools’ deputy superintendent. School officials took attendance Wednesday — if you showed up to get your report card, you were present — but most students stayed in the building for less than an hour.

“It’s just something that we’ve done, that we count,” Mr. Smith said. “If they’re not there to pick up their report card, they are counted as absent.”

But at Howard Middle School, which closed at the end of this year, administrators planned on a student-free day Wednesday. They mailed report cards ahead of time, and students stayed home.

behind the pack?

Other school systems in Southeast Tennessee had even more days off in the past year due to everything from ice, snow and the flu to a bad smell of chicken manure from a nearby farm that permeated the halls of Rhea County High School.

With American school calendars already shorter than those of schools in other industrialized nations, some education experts worry that many U.S. pupils are being left behind.

The number of school days required in Tennessee each year is nearly 30 percent less than the time that Japanese and German schools are in session each year.

Christopher Gabrieli, chairman of the National Center on Time and Learning and author of the book “Time to Learn,” said the state’s 180-day schedule was developed long ago and doesn’t adequately prepare many students for today’s economy.

“At a time when there is more interest and attention to the thought that students need more learning time, it is ironic that many states are taking steps to shorten school time because of short-term issues,” he said.

In a recent speech to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, President Barack Obama said America’s shorter school calendar “puts us at a competitive disadvantage” and called for an end to some of the lazy days of summer for students and teachers.

“We can no longer afford an academic calendar designed when America was a nation of farmers who needed their children at home, plowing the land at the end of each day,” he said.

redefining the school day

Most school systems are required under their normal schedules to have classes only 167 days a year. But a Knoxville school, West Valley Middle School, wasn’t able to meet even that level because the school was closed this spring for a week after a student was diagnosed with H1N1, the “swine flu” virus.

In response, the Tennessee Legislature unanimously approved an amendment to the state’s 180-day attendance law that allowed Education Commissioner Timothy Webb to waive three make-up days scheduled for West Valley Middle. The new law will allow the state education commissioner in the future to waive the state requirement for days of instruction “in the event of a natural disaster or serious outbreaks of illness” during the year.

Knox County Schools Public Affairs Director Russ Oaks said adding three extra days at West Valley to meet the original state requirement would have added extra expense and confusion at the end of the school year.

In Hamilton County, the school year ended without much confusion — or many students — but a faithful few came anyway.

“Most kids didn’t want to get up today, but I wanted to see how I did,” said Dustin Lamb, a junior at Ooltewah High School who got up early to ride the bus and pick up what he said was a successful report on the past semester.

Battle Academy Principal Ruth White said most of her elementary students showed up Wednesday to grab their report cards and say goodbye to their teachers.

Soddy-Daisy High rising junior Blevins Lewallen rolled into school for about five minutes before grabbing breakfast with friends at Huddle House.

“I have a feeling most people aren’t going because they didn’t want to see their grades,” the 17-year-old said. “They didn’t take attendance.”

Hamilton County Board of Education Chairman Kenny Smith said students were expected to attend school on Wednesday since it was a regular day of instruction.

“If we have a day that is scheduled, I would never want to hear principals or teachers tell students not to show up,” he said.

But high school seniors graduated two weeks ago and elementary students at many schools turned in their books early last week and cleaned out their lockers last Thursday or Friday.

Tyler Holmes graduated two weeks ago from Soddy-Daisy High, and he said he hasn’t been in school since May 8.

Mr. Smith said longer school years might help some students, but it also would increase the cost of operating schools.

“You can always say that the more school you go to, the better educated you would be and the more subjects and curriculum you could cover,” he said. “But we’re under a budget crunch right now, and going more days would cost us more money and put us under more of a crunch.”