Schools divided over February school break
Norwalk brought back a full week off this year
For Greenwich Public Schools, giving students and staff a full week off in February has been a longstanding tradition.
“Our community values the February break . ... While it does push out our calendar by four days at the end of the school year, staff, students and families find it valuable and restful,” said Superintendent Toni Jones in a statement.
But GPS is one of just a few Connecticut school districts that still has a full week off in February. Other Connecticut school districts started to eliminate the weeklong vacation primarily for weather reasons.
“I think people felt like the winter is already broken up enough with snow days and everything
else that to take another full week just extends the year,” said Cheshire Public Schools Superintendent Jeff Solan. “People were in favor of a shorter break period.”
Since snow is inevitable in the winter, Solan said there have been times where there have been snow days leading up to February break, ultimately inhibiting learning continuity for the students. He said he believes his district opted for a shorter break about 10 years ago. This year, Cheshire Public Schools were off Presidents Day and the next day, Feb. 20.
Greenwich’s February break took place Feb. 12 through Presidents Day. Fran Rabinowitz, executive director of the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents, said, in addition to Greenwich, southwestern Connecticut school districts offering a weeklong February break include Darien Public Schools and New Canaan Public Schools.
This year, both the Darien and New Canaan school districts’ February break took place the week of Presidents Day. Students also got the Friday before the holiday off as it was a staff professional day.
Some other Fairfield County school districts brought their weeklong February breaks back within the past few years, such as Ridgefield Public Schools, Wilton Public Schools and Norwalk Public Schools.
“When I first started as superintendent here back in 2014 we did not have a full week in February,” said Wilton Public Schools’ Superintendent Kevin Smith in a statement. “We instituted a full week several years ago and are very happy with the calendar. I believe families and staff really appreciate it. We have no plans to change.”
Norwalk Public Schools brought back its weeklong February break this year, said Emily Morgan, the district’s media relations specialist. In 2022, the district sent out a survey to families to see if they preferred a long weekend or full week off in February.
“For the last two years, at least, it was more of a five-day weekend for students and a four-day weekend for staff, with a professional development day on the Thursday before Presidents Day,” Morgan wrote in an email. “We’re also scheduled for a full week off next school year.”
However, the preference for a weeklong break in February is not the same in all school districts.
Robert Kosienski, Jr., president of the Meriden Public Schools Board of Education, said his district opted to get rid of a weeklong February break about 10 years ago, partially due to the weather. He added that families said they didn’t do much traveling over the weeklong break anyway.
“Families can’t afford to go on long winter breaks,” Kosienski, Jr. said.
Kosienski, Jr. said not all of the district’s schools are air conditioned, so getting rid of a fiveday break allows students to be done with school earlier in the summer.
This year, Meriden, like Cheshire, gave students Presidents Day and the day after the holiday, Feb. 20, off. Kosienski, Jr. said the district uses that time to sanitize the buildings since “this is the time of year for COVID and flu.”
For teachers in districts who no longer have a weeklong February break, Kate Dias, president of the Connecticut Education Association, said it is a “mixed bag.” This is because while teachers are done with the school year earlier, the length of time leading up to some time off is longer, since the next school break is not until April
“You’ve got January, February, March and it’s not until April that there’s this substantial kind of pause and so there is an aspect of this for teachers that it makes March a very long month,” Dias said. “Kids are kind of tired, the weather hasn’t been great. All of those pieces play a part of this where everybody is fatigued. When we hit that April break, it means a lot.”
However, Dias said, educators are always analyzing their calendars to make sure they implement the “optimum schedule.”
“It is always a good thing to pause and reflect and make sure that we’re still doing the things that we know are going to serve our kids the best,” Dias said.
That is what Solan is planning to do soon in Cheshire.
Solan said he has not had pushback from families about wanting to bring back a weeklong break. But, he said his team is going to send out a survey soon to the community to ask about the district’s calendar and will most likely ask about time off in February.
“I don’t think there’s a lot of interest in extending (February break), but I could be wrong and that’s why I will ask because we want to make sure we are meeting our students, our families and our staffs’ needs,” Solan said.