NYC 12-Year-Old Petitions to Start Holiday Break Early, and Wins!
The current calendar would mean a one-day school week before the Holiday Break.
Christmas came early for the students of NYC public schools after New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced the cancellation of the one-day school week prior to Holiday break. The cause? A 12-year-old student from Brooklyn.
Students are normally off from December 24th to January 2nd for the Holiday Break. However this year, Christmas Eve falls on a Tuesday, which meant the Monday before was fair game for school. This would mean that students would attend school on the 23rd, and then be off for the remainder of the week, making it a one-day school week for Holiday Break, right after they were already off for the weekend.
Isaac Regnier discovered the discrepancy in May earlier this year, according to Chalkbeat, and formulated a plan to swap the day out for one later in the school year. After his calls and emails to both former New York City Schools Chancellor David Banks and New York City Mayor Eric Adams went unanswered, he took to Change.org to start a petition for Christmas Break week.
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“I love to think about calendars and I noticed a problem: Winter Break is scheduled to start on Tuesday, December 24, 2024, which means we will have a one-day week before the break,” Reigner wrote. “This doesn’t make sense. Attendance will be very low that day. Kids whose families have travel plans will have to change their plans or be marked absent. Kids and teachers will feel annoyed, and kids won’t get to learn anything or have a party with all of their friends (because of the low attendance).”
Regnier proposed swapping the 23rd for an extra last day of school in June. Normally, the end of the school year would be June 26th, but with the extra day, it would simply change to June 27th.
“I know it’s not an easy job with so many holidays on the school calendar. (I have them memorized.) But I hope it’s not too late to avoid a silly one-day week.” he continued.
As of Halloween, the petition garnered 22 thousand signatures.
The 7th grader from Bay Ridge received a lot of support, with some commenters even leaving video messages alongside the petition.
“My son works for New York City schools. I live in California and he wants to come with his wife. They are holding off on buying plane tickets and each day the price goes up for plane tickets for him to come,” Laura Shaffer recited in her video comment. “We really would like him to not have to travel on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. So if you can change the school calendar, we would be very grateful.”
In 2023, Triple A projected that a whopping 115 million people would travel on Christmas Eve. In 2024, that number is expected to increase by 2.2 percent, making traveling even more hectic than usual. Flight prices are also up, with round-trip flights for Christmas increased by 4% from the previous year, and 13% from pre-pandemic levels.
“One school day in between holidays doesn’t make students any brighter,” another signer commented. “Giving at least a day to prepare for Christmas not only gives students and teachers the joy of being stress-free but makes the most of the holiday season with loved ones.”
Regnier’s petition garnered the attention of the city, and on Wednesday, October 30th, Mayor Adams announced the change.
“Winter break this school year will now start one day early, on December 23rd, so that everyone can enjoy the extra time with family and friends,” Adams told NBC 4 New York. “We know that a one-day week would not be well attended — so this just makes good sense. Our children’s education will not be short-changed, so we will still maintain the required 180 days of instruction. I want to thank the teachers, parents, and our labor partners at the UFT who helped us make this good sense decision.”
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