<p>Does your school district have midwinter break?</p>
<p>I know we just had two weeks off, but my younger Ds district has a week off in February ( spring break begins March 31st).</p>
<p>I asked my older D if she was getting midwinter break,( she works in a public elementary) because I was planning on going to Portland while her sister was in Ghana & doing a tour of some permaculture sites while I was there.</p>
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<p>Personally, I think it is silly also- particulary as they have so many 1/2 days and other interuptions, but we have had it so long that I didn’t realize other districts might not.</p>
<p>We didn’t have half days at my school. We got a week in February and a week in April. Some schools did two weeks in March instead. Now that I’m in college, we just have one week in March.</p>
<p>Most districts in our area have a week long winter break in mid-February (a few only have Fri/Mon). We live in MI, and I suspect the ski/snowmobile industry may have been behind this. It’s new since I went to school. In addition, our districts generally have Good Friday (except those with predominantly Jewish or Muslim populations) off, followed by the week following Easter. We go to school through mid June, going back right after Labor Day (start day varies, but by law cannot start before Labor Day … travel industry, again).</p>
<p>After living on the West and East coast and having family in the Mid-West, it seems that the mid-winter (or as my family calls “ski week”) break is a distinctively west coast thing with a few exceptions.</p>
<p>When my family lived in New Jersey, our school system attempted to have breaks in both February and April. However, when the quota of snow days was greatly exceeded, which happened about every second year, they would take days off the April break, which really angered people who had made travel plans. So things didn’t work out very well.</p>
<p>last year we had much more snow than usual and districts were out- some districts 10 days altogether.</p>
<p>I would think it would have been a no brainer to have taken it out of mid winter break- but apparently too many people- including teachers already had plans.
So in Seattle, where they had missed 5 days, they held school during two Fridays that were previously off days , during the between semester break ( which really messed stuff up- because much work has to be done inbetween the semesters & when the kids are attending school- they are physically there- but their one class is over and the other hadn’t started yet.) & another staff development day in March. ( those were rescheduled for June)</p>
<p>The school year was also extended two days, I guess they didn’t have to make up the 5th day & for how much work is done towards the end of June, they really could have skipped it.</p>
<p>it used to be just friday/monday in the middle of february, then two years ago it became a full week in mid-february, and this year it’s friday/monday/tuesday in mid-february.</p>
<p>We are also in Michigan and have a week off. I was told the mid-winter break started in the 70’s during the “energy crisis” since it was cheaper to close down the schools for a week during the cold weather, and keep them open an extra week in June. Not sure if there is any truth to this or not. </p>
<p>I know several districts in my area tried to turn the break into a long weekend a few years ago and parents went crazy!!</p>
<p>I live in Vermont. The public schools here have 11 days off in late February. It’s at the end of Feb. for a week and then continues into the first Mon. and Tues. of the following week at the start of March. It goes through the first Tues. in March which is Town Meeting Day in Vermont. So, it is a total of 11 days off. They also get a week off in April.</p>
<p>Our kids have off Friday and Monday for Presidents day weekend and then just a few days off at Easter. No week long breaks off at all in the whole school year except for Christmas/New Years when they get off about 2 weeks. This week the kids are having mid-terms and go half days, but I don’t think they consider it a break. :)</p>
<p>When I moved to Seattle one of the first things I noticed was that the kids were never in school. Breaks, conferences, in service days etc etc. Maybe that’s why the pay is low–you never have to work.</p>
<p>We have Feb break here in NY. It’s tied to the President’s Day.
Everyone leaves town to either ski or visit grandparents in Florida. Since we have so many state workers, not much gets done that week.
Spring break is 3rd week of April. School ends the end of June.</p>
<p>LisaT is correct - the midwinter break started during the energy crisis in the 70s. We still have it in many districts here in Western NY, not so many in Buffalo as in Rochester - those districts that try to take it away face a lot of protests from strong teacher unions and parents, who use the break to go to points south to escape the winter for a short time - I for one would go stir crazy without it!! Then there is the April break, where just about ALL of Rochester goes in a convoy down to Myrtle Beach - I think that tradition started with Kodak breaks/bonuses…some more rural/agricultural districts have decided to have a three or four-day Presidents Day weekend to make the spring break longer (a week and a half in some places) for planting prep…</p>