After considerable discussion, the District 166 school board voted February 15 to keep February break in next year’s school calendar but reduce spring break to a four-day weekend over Easter. This will shorten the school year by three days, allowing students to be out the door on Wednesday, June 6, 2012 instead of the following Monday, June 11.
The board considered three different options: to continue having a week off in February and a week off in April, to only have one week off the last week in March, or to take off the week that starts with President’s Day and then take off the Thursday and Friday before Easter (April 5 and 6, 2012).
Community and staff surveys were conducted. Superintendent Beth Schwarz said she thought public opinion was split about 50-50 on whether to keep both breaks. Numerous options were presented in those surveys, and school board member Jeanne Anderson said people were concerned about what the surveys really said about what people want. Jane Gellner wondered if they were ignoring people’s wishes by getting rid of one of the breaks, since half of the people wanted to keep both breaks while the other half voted for a variety of different options.
When he was principal, Leonard Sobanja said, having only the April break led to a lot of discipline problems. “Kids, after a long period of time, they get antsy…” he said. On the staff survey one person commented, “You can always tell when it is time for a break. The students know it, the teachers know it, and the staff knows it. You may not be able to measure it with a test, but everyone comes back refreshed and ready to hit it hard.”
Rod Wannebo said he thought they should extend the school year. “That should be our goal.”
Schwarz recommended keeping the February vacation to break up the winter “doldrums.” She recommended against going to one break in March because students have state testing during the first half of April. She said students start regressing academically after nine days away from school. One of the staff survey comments, however, said, “The majority of children have no problem remembering all their favorite movies and video games, so I doubt that academic regression is a failure of the school schedule.”
Superintendent Schwarz said that a February break would allow local families who would not be traveling to enjoy outdoor winter activities.
Comments from the staff survey ranged from thinking they should break up the long winter with two breaks to thinking they should finish the school year earlier. One person said that since so many Cook County parents are busiest at work in the summertime, many of them would be likely to take their kids out of school sometime during the second semester if one of the breaks were taken away.
Jeanne Anderson said she would like more time to talk to families about their wishes. The board voted anyway, with a split vote of 3 to 2 to shorten the spring break to a long weekend. Voting no were Leonard Sobanja and Jeanne Anderson.
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