Give the February school recess a permanent vacation

Although we are not yet at the halfway point of the current K-12 public school year, school administrators and boards of education are in the early stages of preparing for the 2023-2024 school year. This includes the development of the new school calendar.

Between federal, state and religious holidays, recess periods, and professional development days, when schools are closed but staff is required to attend and participate in instructional workshops, it's clear that these numerous school closures significantly interrupt the instructional flow and consistency needed for learning and achievement within the 180-day school calendar. Unbelievably, the typical district will not have a complete month of school this calendar year until March!

While this is not to pass judgment on the required observances of any of the mandated observance days, there is one period that should go: the February recess. It is not needed; it is untimely and interferes with the consistency of effective instruction. Why do we even have it?

The February recess began in 1977, when New York Gov. Hugh Carey ordered schools closed for two weeks during an energy crisis. The week off was quickly accepted, and why not? Everyone likes a week off with opportunities to travel, sleep late, and catch up on chores. Walk through Disney World in February and you'll hear Long Island accents everywhere. Yet, this unnecessary week off also presents problems. Working parents struggle to find child care for young children, and worry about leaving older ones home alone. But the primary reason to change is instructional.

Achievement levels of students dropped during the recent pandemic. The National Center for Educational Statistics reported that math and reading scores for nine-year-olds significantly fell during the two years of the pandemic. Reading scores experienced their largest decrease in 30 years, while math scores declined for the first time in the history of the testing program. In New York, less than 40% of those taking state math assessments in grades 3-8 in 2022 passed, and less than 50% passed the English assessment. Federal and state officials were so alarmed that they increased school aid significantly, with Long Island’s 124 school districts receiving a 12% hike, or $400 million. While it makes sense to use these dollars to help students catch up, doing that in the context of a fragmented school year will not be enough. Dollars alone will not solve the problem

Eliminating or reducing the February recess is not a new idea. In 1916, Boston schools reportedly were ordered to reduce the week off in February to make up for time lost during the infantile paralysis epidemic. Most major city school systems remain open during February. One exception is New York City, where it's part of a 1991 contractual obligation between the city and the teachers union. In exchange for deferring $40 million in wages, the union was granted a contractual weeklong break.

New York City would face a host of union and contractual challenges if it tried to tamper with the February recess. The process on Long Island would be no less challenging. But if school officials, boards of education, teachers, and parents are serious about restoring academic achievement levels lost because of the pandemic, they should let the February recess take its own permanent vacation starting with the 2023-2024 school year. In exchange, the four recess days could be used to start the school year later or end it sooner.

This guest essay reflects the view of Philip S. Cicero, a retired superintendent of Lynbrook Public Schools.