Although more than 100 parents sent in letters or made phone calls to the Board of Education expressing concerns over a week-long break scheduled for the next school year, only a few came to the May 11 school board meeting to convince the board to change its mind. Even among the few parents who spoke, not all disagreed with the policy. The board is scheduled to vote on next year’s school calendar at its May 25 meeting. Sandra Hoffman, mother of three kids in Secaucus schools, raised the issue several months ago, claiming that she – like many other working mothers in Secaucus – faced a dilemma in providing day care for children during the week. Under the board’s proposed calendar, Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, Presidents’ Day and Columbus Day would be lumped into a single week, allowing school operations to shut down. “I’m off on the traditional holidays,” Hoffman said. “I can’t take a week off in February.” This is a situation that many parents face. Hoffman said during traditional holidays, parents get to spend that time with their kids, while with the proposed schedule, parents might not be able to. Hoffman said she feared for the safety of the children. Monica Colaneri said she was more concerned with maintaining the tradition, saying that those holidays were holidays for a reason, and that students might lose the meaning behind those days if not celebrated. She also said that the week off disrupts the student, making it more difficult for the student when he or she returns to class. This is not a new issue for the Board of Education. Board members Doug MacCormack and Elanore Reinl have argued in the past that the extra week off in the middle of the school year put a burden on parents who may not be able to provide home care or would be forced to use up vacation time. They agreed that the week off also could actually be disruptive to kids, who would be assigned work for the vacation period, but would likely get out of sync with class room habits during the break. The week break was introduced in the mid-1980s as an energy saving measure and has since become a boon to the school district that reduces costs in heating and salaries. Schools officials said by lumping many of the holidays into a single week, educators lessened the impact single holidays had on the educational process. They noted the considerable savings the mid-February closing had on expenses at the schools. “We’re not doing this for the students,” said board member Ed Rittberg. “These holidays are contractual. We have to give them to the employees.” Rittberg and other board members noted that the schools are particular vigilant in providing class instructions on those holidays in which kids are in school to make them more aware of what the holiday means. Rittberg previously noted that the Secaucus school district has scheduled holidays in this fashion for most of the last decade without many complaints. Other board members in the past have argued that that holidays are no longer universally recognized with businesses, government offices and banks often staying open when they did not in the past. Jo Marie Bennett, a parent defending the proposed schedule, said many more parents have not signed petitions or called the superintendent because they liked the schedule. “Their silence is golden,” Bennett said. “Many more people are in favor of the week off.” But in each of her yearly battles against the week, board member Reinl said people have complained every year. MacCormack also noted that this week does not correspond to the schedule established by the Hudson County Technical School, which has a satellite school in Secaucus High School. “Those teachers come to the high school when the rest of the school is closed and they are not there sometimes when our school is open,” he said.
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