Bristol Warren schools move spring vacation to March

Several teachers and two students oppose the calendar change, citing stress, inconvenience

By Patrick Luce
Posted 2/28/17

Students in the Bristol Warren School District will have vacation in April for the last time this year after the School Committee voted Monday to move it to the last week in March.

The committee …

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Bristol Warren schools move spring vacation to March

Several teachers and two students oppose the calendar change, citing stress, inconvenience

Posted

Students in the Bristol Warren School District will have vacation in April for the last time this year after the School Committee voted Monday to move it to the last week in March.

The committee voted 6-3 to move the vacation up two weeks beginning in 2018 despite a parade of teachers and two students who spoke out against the change, saying it would inconvenience teachers who have children in other school districts, increase stress in teachers and students, prevent custodians from sanitizing school buildings during winter, and eat in to family vacation time.

“Our profession does not allow us to change vacation time. The thought of being away from my children for a week (during school vacations) is simply excruciating,” said Kerry D’Angelo, a teacher at Mt. Hope High School. “Consider the mothers and fathers who will be kept from their children.”

Moving April vacation — which will be held two weeks earlier — will increase stress on students in the second half of the year, according to Samantha Mendonca, a junior at Mt. Hope, who said students have to deal with standardized testing, SATs, science fairs, and various extracurricular activities in the spring.

“If you ask any student or member of the staff if they are stressed, chances are they will say yes,” Ms. Mendonca said. “Vacation gives us the opportunity to destress. By taking away a vacation, we are no longer able to recover from our very stressful lives.”

The move to shorten February vacation and move up April vacation is not unexpected as the School Committee has been discussing the change for several years, and actually approved it a year ago. Students in the district did not have a full February vacation this year, instead attending class Wednesday through Friday last week after the President’s Day holiday Monday and a professional development day on Tuesday. The School Committee delayed changing the April vacation at the request of some parents last year to accommodate vacation plans that may have already been made. The school calendar approved Monday is for the 2017-2018 school year.

Bristol Warren is one of a handful of school districts altering the calendar, a change the state Department of Education had been pushing. Cutting down February vacation — which falls less than two months after Christmas break — helps insulate school districts from snow days that can eat into summer vacation, School Committee member John Bento said.

“Snow days, the closeness of February break to the holiday break — that was the reason to move it to March and get rid of February. You don’t want to push into summer; not all school buildings have air conditioning,” Mr. Bento said.“This discussion has been going on for six years. There is a trend. There are other towns doing it.”

But there are not enough other districts making the change to justify the move in Bristol Warren, according to Tiffany Giusti, a teacher at Hugh Cole School, who said she and her colleagues often can’t afford to pay for child care when their children in a different district have a different vacation.

“By aligning our vacation with most school districts in the state, family balance is achieved,” said Ms. Giusti, adding that keeping the vacation two weeks later will help relieve stress. “The second half of the school year is very challenging. Students need time to sufficiently rejuvenate.”

It is a sentiment shared by most teachers, according to Brian Chidester, vice president of the local teachers union. He cited a union poll that showed 73 percent of Bristol Warren teachers prefer the traditional February and April vacations. A majority of parents agree, he said, citing that 56 percent of nearly 600 respondents also prefer the traditional vacation schedule.

“I hope that the school committee will listen to the voice of the community, of teachers and parents alike, and consider that you are charged with making a decision not simply based on your own personal inclinations, but also — and more importantly — based on the wishes of the community you were elected to represent,” Mr. Chidester said.

The committee has considered the community’s input and did so during discussions at meetings over the past couple years, according to School Committee Chairman Paul Silva, who noted the committee had no ability to change the proposed school calendar; simply approve or reject it.

“There is nothing that is reducing the number of non school days. It’s merely a shift from a week in April to a week in March,” Mr. Silva said. “In 23 years, we’ve never had a calendar that aligned with others in the state. We’ve always had differences.”

Moving the April vacation to the last week in March just makes sense, according to committee member Diana Campbell.

“I felt there was too much time between the January start date and the April vacation,” she said, adding that the old February vacation was too soon after Christmas and tends to hurt the rhythm teachers need to establish in the classroom. “Having that break in March keeps the rhythm going and helps us do what we want to do.”

Other committee members struggled to see the “compelling reason” to change the vacation schedule from that which most other districts employ. John Saviano, who serves on the statewide association of school committees, joined Erin Schofield and Adam Ramos in opposing the change.

“Others came to me and asked why are we spearheading this change. Truthfully, I didn’t have an answer. I couldn’t defend the change,” Mr. Saviano said. “If you said the teachers are going to be happy and the students are going to be happy and the families are going to be happy, then I’d be all in favor. I do not see anything that holds water with this motion.”

“It’s important to be considerate of the community it affects in the absence of a compelling reason to change,” Mr. Ramos added. “There is not compelling reason for this district to be an outlier. This throws a monkey wrench in the plans of families and teachers.”

The compelling reason, according to committee member Marjorie McBride is to improve the quality of education the district provides, achieved through “continuous instruction.”

“This has been an on-going discussion. We took testimony last year about the calendar,” Ms. McBride said. “This should not be a surprise to anyone.”

Bristol Warren Regional School Committee, school calendar

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