Goodbye February Vacation 2015 for Greenwich Public School Students

February vacation as we now know it will be no longer as of 2015. That’s right, as of February 2015, Greenwich Public Schools will not have a February week-long break.  Enjoy your plans this February 2013, and again in 2014 because the calendar will remain as usual. 2013 and 2014 offer a 10 day holiday including President’s Day itself which has always been on Monday, the last day of our school vacation.  As of 2015, Greenwich Public Schools will be closed on the Friday preceding the Monday of President’s Day. This means there is a four-day weekend scheduled from February 13, 2015 to February 16, 2015 with students returning to school on Tuesday, February 17, 2015. No additional vacation days were added to the calendar, but school will end on June 15, 2015 (including 5 snow days) which is a week earlier than usual.

The Board of Education approved this calendar change as of 12/20/12. It will be implemented in 2015 to give residents enough time to adjust future plans and schedules to accommodate the new policy. Sufficient notice was an important consideration. The February school vacation issue has been controversial since 2009. The main concern until now was whether the break should be before or following President’s Day. Greenwich has enjoyed many years of the pre-President’s Day vacation which afforded residents less expensive travel rates, less crowded destinations, and more. The concern was that the designated week did not coincide with other school districts, making it inconvenient for teachers and others to travel with families outside of Greenwich. Deleting the vacation week from the future calendar all together eliminates this continuing debate.

Ending the school year a week earlier in 2015 will benefit those who start summer jobs and programs in June. Also, the extra long December vacation will be 12 full days. The Board of Education included January 2nd as a new school closure because it falls on a Friday, and then students can remain on vacation until Monday, January 5th.  Simply by including one new vacation date, the December holiday 2014-2015 will be extended longer than usual. The curriculum will not be interrupted a month back to school, but will continue straight into the March testing month and then culminate with a long April vacation. Many schools do not have two consecutive winter vacations; so there will not be discrepancies with schedules for siblings in colleges, private or other schools. Most other schools, private and public, have just a long President’s weekend and Greenwich will get used to it as the years pass. Learning is the top priority and the Greenwich Public Schools will meet the required number of school days to effectuate instruction.