Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Palm Beach County schools’ winter break could be cut short
Palm Beach County schools may forego a popular holiday tradition this year — the two-week winter break.
The normal 10-day vacation would be reduced to nine for students and eight for teachers, under a proposed 2021-2022 calendar the School Board will consider Jan. 20. It would be spread out over one full week and two partial weeks.
Like seemingly every unwelcome change these days, COVID-19 is a factor, with district officials trying to get as much school time in during the first semester for students who have fallen behind during the pandemic.
Under the proposal, the winter break would start this year on Thursday, Dec. 23, and students would return to school Wednesday, Jan. 5. Teachers would return a day earlier.
It’s not going over well with many parents and teachers, who accused the district of being Scrooges.
“That’s awkward,” said Sarah Merzel, who has two children in Boca Raton schools. “You can’t go out of town to meet family and get a head start. These kids will be in school until Thursday, right before Christmas Eve.”
The days, which were endorsed by the Classroom Teachers Association, were panned by many teachers on the Facebook group “Palm Beach Teachers Talk.”
“This is just horrible,” wrote Michelle Williams Vidal, a teacher in Jupiter. “Teachers are already frus
trated and exhausted. Guess they will need to find subs to cover all the teachers taking off during the year and at Christmas.”
A series of factors led to the recommendation, including Christmas and New Year’s falling on the weekend.
“When the holidays fall on a Saturday or Sunday, it is unlikely that the winter break will begin on a Monday,” said Vicki Evans-Paré, director of employee and labor relations.
Often when that happens, the district extends winter break a day or two into a third week. But with a full week off at Thanksgiving and two Jewish holidays, the district was running out of days.
After starting and finishing three weeks later than normal this year due to the pandemic, the school district wants to return to a more normal start day, which will be Aug. 10. Starting earlier would cut into an already truncated summer. Starting later would push winter exams into January.
“The goal is to give exams before winter break — principals all agree that is in the best interest of children,” spokeswoman Claudia Shea said. “Delaying the start of the school year, following all of the COVID-19 turmoil, may not be in the best interest of students who have lost ground.”
Broward and Miami-Dade will have a traditional two-week winter break. They start the school year later in January and finish it after students return from the break in January.
“We will be the only school district with a shorter winter break. It’s a joke,” posted Darrell Schwartz, who teaches in Palm Beach Gardens.
Some teachers said they doubt kids will show up for the three days before the break starts. Evans-Paré said the district finds absenteeism is high when there are less than three days in a school week, which is why Thanksgiving vacation has been extended to a week in recent years. That continues under the proposed calendar.
Whether the proposal will pass remains to be seen. School Board members say they are receiving emails with concern about the calendar, not only about winter break but the early August start of school. Board member Karen Brill said she will likely vote against it, due to the shortened summer break.
With Christmas and New Year’s falling on a Sunday during the 2022-23 school year, the proposed calendar includes an even shorter break then: seven days for students and six for teachers.