×

School officials weigh vacation dates

SARANAC LAKE — Saranac Lake Central School District officials say they’ll have a hard time making everyone happy when it comes to scheduling their 10 “spring break” vacation days for the next school year.

Superintendent Diane Fox and the district’s Board of Education discussed the draft calendar for the 2017-18 school year last week. She said state testing dates, sports schedules and the dates of spring musicals make it difficult to determine where to put the 10 vacation days.

“There’s no good place to put the vacation,” she said. “Somebody’s going to be disrupted somewhere. It is not an easy year to make a choice.”

The 10 days have traditionally been used in a single two-week period, although Saranac Lake schools are one of a small number of districts statewide who do it that way.

In the 2015-16 school year, however, the board voted to break the days up into two week-long chunks, one week in February and one week in April. The change upset some people, and the board, after taking public comment, approved a return to the two-week spring break for the current school year. It’s set for April 10-21.

Those in favor of the two-week break have said the longer break allows families to enjoy a longer block of time together. They also said a split break would fall on President’s Weekend, which may upset sports schedules and prevent those who work in the area’s tourism industry from traveling with their families.

Those who supported splitting the break said students from lower-income families do not have the same opportunities for travel that students and may not have any educational opportunities during the long break. They also worried about state testing taking place shortly after students return from the two-week break.

Fox stressed that the draft schedule for 2017-18 is not her suggestion. Based on the vacation schedules typically used by the Franklin-Essex-Hamilton and Champlain Valley Boards of Cooperative Educational Services, it contains a split break with one week off in February and one week in April. Fox sent the draft to district administrators and the Saranac Lake Teachers Association. She also said she talked to Lake Placid Central School District Superintendent Roger Catania, who plans to talk about it with his board.

“I think what you’re seeing with this calendar is it’s tricky where to put our two weeks,” Fox said. “There’s no good spot.”

The challenge of taking a lot of vacation time in April is the state testing schedule. Districts can either do computer-based or pen-and-paper testing next year. The paper tests have to be given April 11-13 while the computer-based tests can be done from April 10-17. There are also make-up dates on April 15-20.

“So we’re back to splitting our two weeks?” asked board member Aurora White.

“Not necessarily,” Fox responded. “I’m simply sharing the info that’s arrived from the other areas, so you’re aware what the component districts are doing in our FEH BOCES and you’re aware what our neighbors are doing.”

Fox said one idea is to have a two-week break from March 26 through April 6, however, state tests would take place soon after students return. The tests don’t carry much weight now, Fox said, “but at some point in the near future, the state tests are going to matter again.

“The message we send to our community by taking our kids out of school for two weeks, then bringing them back for a day or two before taking the state tests is ‘Oh, well, (the tests) don’t matter to us either,'” Fox said.

There’s also been discussion of pushing the break back into March, but that “plays complete havoc with our sports teams” and “messes with our musical,” Fox said.

“The neatest spot to do it is to hook it to the February break,” she said. “I know that sounds weird. I know part of it is historically a lot of people have to work then, but we also hear a lot about people who go on vacation, and there probably isn’t a cheaper week to go on vacation than Feb. 26 through March 2.”

Another consideration is that if the district’s vacation schedule doesn’t align with the BOCES vacation schedule, students in those programs could go up to four weeks without BOCES.

Board member Rick Retrosi said he doesn’t see any way the 10 days could be taken off in April. He said he wants to avoid a repeat of what happened last year.

“I’m really hoping to not go down that road we went down last year and end up with 180 emails in my inbox, our collective mailboxes,” Retrosi said. “I think the essential piece here is the block of time as opposed to when it is. I think it should be collective and part of that collective should be the public. And I think the public has weighed in and spoken loud and clear.”

Fox said she’ll come to the board’s next meeting with options and what the neighboring districts, Lake Placid and Tupper Lake, are doing.

“More discussion to happen, definitely,” said board President Clyde Baker.

NEWSLETTER

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *

Starting at $4.75/week.

Subscribe Today