Anonymous wrote:Please understand that unions don’t make these decisions. If unions had that much power, many things would be fixed. Don’t think that anyone asks the unions about the schedule. How nice it would be if they did!

I supposed it depends on where you are, but as PP of the comment above yours, our district contracts are negotiated yearly and the calendar is a huge part of it. We have town districts, not county. And while there is a county calendar, you don't have to follow it, our district does not.

How about you teach your kids that schedules and rules are there to be followed in life, and people that don’t have consequences, and ask admin to stop with the emails to people who aren’t involved. Surely they could have everyone sign a statement upon enrollment acknowledging the policies.

Please understand that unions don’t make these decisions. If unions had that much power, many things would be fixed. Don’t think that anyone asks the unions about the schedule. How nice it would be if they did!

We are in public school and have a full week off in Feb. during President's Day week and then a second full week FOUR weeks later for spring break. I would be thrilled if they just combined those into 2 in the middle of March, but I don't see the union agreeing to it.

Anonymous wrote:Parents will still do whatever they want to do no matter how much time off students have.

This. It won’t achieve your goal OP. I’m so tired of the blast absentee emails. Just email the people it actually applies to.

Parents will still do whatever they want to do no matter how much time off students have.

My husband teaches at an international private school. They have three weeks at Christmas to accommodate.

Don’t some districts already have two week breaks?

We would need year round school which I would love but most people j don't think would and esp teachers! Without that time in the calendar I'm not sure you can fit the current holidays of Thanksgiving, Spring, Christmas plus all the teacher workdays and traditional holidays in and still pull even more days off! The parents like me would be hopping mad! . So it's a no win situation unless we change the model and good luck with changing anything in the US be it healthcare, Daylight Savings Time, gun laws, working hours less than 40 hr/wk, etc.

Imagine moving to another country and assuming their school system will adjust to your extended travel plans.

The problem is different families want different 2-week breaks, depending on the school and summer schedules in their home/native countries. And as a PP says, many families want--and take--far more than a two week break.

This is what they do in England. I have no idea why we don’t do it here.

My students are out for a good 5-6 weeks in December/January. If that’s what they want to do, fine. They are withdrawn anyway so the school doesn’t have to hound parents about it.

I’d love a two week spring vacation in February.

I’m at an UMC school in a rich district here. Over half the school are first Gen (or their parents are), so there are a LOT of absences when families go overseas for a couple of weeks. We’re getting nonstop emails from school about it.

Since there’s such a desire to have longer breaks, why isn’t this being accommodated? I know that my family doesn’t travel over Thanksgiving, Easter, or Christmas because our family is local, which basically only leaves summer for trips. We hate the weather in summer and talking to the other parents (mostly Asians or Indians) it seems they don’t want to travel in the heat either. Most weddings or family events that they travel to don’t happen in summer.

I’ve always wanted year round school but I realize it’s not popular with teachers. Why not combine all the random days off into a longer break?