February Break Now a 4-day Weekend

The Board of Education has voted to cancel part of February break, leaving intact only two days of vacation – essentially resulting in a long four-day weekend for students and families in place of a full week they were to have off from school.

The decision was necessary after Tropical Storm Irene caused enough damage and outages for the district to delay the start of school by four days.

Six of the board members voted in favor of amending the school year calendar. The proposal originated from Debbie Leidlein, with the sole dissenter being David Nanavaty, who had previously been in favor of preserving February break only to change his mind and advocate for keeping the calendar unchanged.

"It's amazing to see Debbie backtrack the way I backtracked," Nanavaty said.

Leidlein was originally in favor of keeping the calendar unchanged because she said families had used it to make their plans even before the school year began, but then changed her mind, she said, after talking to more parents and students and hearing of their concerns.

"I'm not a fan of February break," Leidlein said. "I see the educational value of continuing to go to school in February."

The proposal that eventually passed was designed to be a compromise that will allow parents and students to have some time off, particularly around one of the days, Feb. 20 – which also is President's Day and a federal and town holiday – but have students and teachers returning to classes for Feb. 22, 23 and 24.

"Debbie's suggestion would probably work better for those families who already have plans," Superintendent of Schools Janet Robinson said.

Richard Gaines had tried to add another day off to the break but that would leave a two-day week, which members said would be undesirable.

"I'm not sure it will encourage anyone to show up," said member Keith Alexander, who also supported Leidlein's suggestion.

In addition to the three make-up days in February, Leidlein also proposed adding the fourth one to the end of the school calendar and making the last day of school be a half day.

Hart said he supported the proposal because it would still leave the district with two weeks at the end of June should there be snow days during the winter. He said that the district should avoid having students in class during the last week in June.

"Making the kids go to school in the last week in June is hell," he said.

Buzzi also supported the proposal based on feedback he said he received.

"We are responding to something that has occurred that was out of our control," he said.