Schools may drop February vacation

By Matt Bower
Posted 2/11/16

Although a vote was not taken at Tuesday night’s School Committee meeting on whether or not to alter the February vacation period in the 2016-17 school year calendar, the calendar document …

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Schools may drop February vacation

Posted

Although a vote was not taken at Tuesday night’s School Committee meeting on whether or not to alter the February vacation period in the 2016-17 school year calendar, the calendar document available online for the meeting did not include a full week of winter vacation next February, leaving many worried and several in the audience taking the opportunity to voice their opposition to such a proposal.

According to the proposed 2016-17 school calendar, instead of having the entire week of Feb. 20-24 off, it would only be Feb. 20-21 (Feb. 20 is Presidents Day and there would be no school either way), with an added day off during Thanksgiving break (Nov. 23-25), resulting in a two-day school week that week.

Prior to the discussion, Superintendent Philip Thornton said there would be no vote on Tuesday, just discussion.

“There’s been a change to February vacation in the state calendar,” Thornton said. “There’s no wrong answer here; it’s all about personal preference and what the community wants.”

Thornton said currently there are 10 districts in the state that have chosen to reduce February vacation, with the remaining 26 using the traditional calendar and keeping February break intact.

“My fear is going late into June due to snow days; we’ve had two already this year,” Thornton said. “If we reduce February vacation, we get out earlier in June.”

According to this year’s school calendar (2015-16), the last day of school was scheduled to be Friday, June 17. Due to the two snow days, school is now scheduled to end on June 21.

During public comment, several people used the opportunity to voice their opposition to the proposed altered February vacation.

“Keep February break where it is,” said Peter Stone, a social studies teacher at Gorton. “Summer is long enough as it is and a two-day-a-week Thanksgiving is a waste. People plan winter vacations and kids look forward to the downtime in February, don’t take it away.”

Stone said it’s also a health issue.

“Having the break provides an opportunity to air out the buildings and clear out all the germs that have been accumulating,” he said.

Darlene Netcoh, English teacher and department head at Toll Gate, also spoke in favor of keeping February break as is.

“We frequently have snow during February, so we would have a snow day anyway,” she said. “And a three-day school week won’t deter families from taking vacations.”

School Committee member Karen Bachus said, “It’s a break in the middle of winter, a lot of people like it and use it to go skiing.”

Committee member Terri Medeiros said if a change were to be made to the calendar, two years notice should be given to allow families to plan vacation trips accordingly.

During the discussion, there were shouts from the audience that school districts need to get together and get on the same page and coordinate schedules.

In response, Thornton said the problem with that is Rhode Island has 36 districts and things are very local, with districts doing things their own way.

“There’s not a one-size-fits-all coming down from RIDE [Rhode Island Department of Education,” he said.

Thornton said last year a community survey was administered asking about school vacations and which are people most likely to use for going away on trips.

“[Approximately] 15 percent said they go away during the winter break, but the survey did not ask if you want to keep it or not,” Thornton said, adding a one-question survey asking whether to keep February break as is or alter it would be administered to the community before the committee’s next monthly meeting in March when the 2016-17 school calendar will be voted on.

Comments

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  • RISchadenfreude

    Other states have one break during the college midterm (Easter/Spring break) period so that families can spend time together while college students are off, rather than February and April breaks; parents schedule their vacations around the period when their younger children are on school vacation and college kids are home to promote and accommodate "family time".

    It seems like a common-sense solution, but the teachers' unions will never allow eliminating two breaks for one.

    Friday, February 12, 2016 Report this

  • Justanidiot

    Which college break are you talking about. That varies widely. Unless of course your mouth breathing kids are stuck at CCRI for ten years.

    Tuesday, February 16, 2016 Report this

  • RISchadenfreude

    Jastanidiot, read what is right in front of you: Easter/Spring break, which coincides with college midterms.

    I wouldn't send a pet to a State-run institution in RI- they don't even rank in the Top 500 colleges in the entire nation; however, you might want to sign up at a local elementary school for Reading Comprehension and basic composition (punctuation) skills.

    Thursday, February 18, 2016 Report this