Many families are starting to plan their vacations and holidays for next year, and we’ve received some inquiries about the 2016-17 school calendar. The calendar may be found on our website at www.psharvard.org in the lower right-hand corner.
A recurring question has been about whether the vacation weeks have been changed. The quick answer is “no.” We still have a week off in December, a week off in February, and a week off in April. Some of you may recall that two years ago, we conducted a parent survey about possibly switching to one March vacation week and shortening the February and April weeks into long weekends (both Mondays are federal holidays). This survey and the discussions surrounding this change were prompted by the state educational leaders following the heavy snowfall of the preceding winter. Since school calendar development is granted to local school committees, each district had to consider the state recommendations and then make individual decisions. Most districts, including Harvard, decided to keep the traditional Massachusetts vacation weeks. Even though the majority of parents surveyed in Harvard favored the switch, the complexity of being out of sync with the surrounding districts, in the absence of strong educational gains for the students, ultimately made the switch unfavorable. However, the topic of vacation weeks continues to spark conversations, and Littleton is looking to sponsor a bill that would address the vacation schedule at the state level. Additionally, research has indicated benefits to switching the start times of the school day for older and younger students, and many districts are exploring ways to make that happen.
We will continue to research and discuss these topics with the students’ best interest at the forefront of any future decisions.
Linda Dwight is the superintendent of Harvard Public Schools.
