The decision to add an extra hour to the school day for 13 days is simply not fair to the students, teachers, or parents of Cumberland County. Adding this extra hour every day would mean some children would not get off the school bus until 5 or 6pm! These kids are already exhausted and starving after a normal school day, to add this extra hour will leave them physically and mentally drained. A college level student or adult doesn't even attend classes for 11 or 12 hours a day simply because the brain fatigues and cannot process information after a certain point so thinking this will help with extra study time for the testing coming up is just outrageous! Behavior issues during school and on the bus will dramatically increase, after school activities and sports will be affected, and some of the high school students have jobs to support their families/ local businesses which will cause them to loose actual money that some simply cannot afford to loose. Part of our county was declared a "disaster area" by the governor of Tennessee due to the recent ice storm. The residents of this county had NO control over this so these make up days should be excused. The majority of the county was without power for over a week! The school calendar issued at the beginning of the school year clearly states that if more than 10 snow days were missed they would first use the three staff development days, then Martin Luther King and Presidents Days, and last they will add days to the end of the school year. This decision was made 2 years ago because they extended the school day the prior year with unsuccessful results. Why would it be different this year? As a mother and resident of this county, I strongly feel that the Board of Education needs to reconsider this decision, keeping the best interest and well being of our children in mind when doing so.