By Ava Van’t Hof
Staff Writer
The Manhattan Beach Unified School District Board of Trustees and the Manhattan Beach Unified Teachers Association decided during November 2014 to shorten Thanksgiving Break from having the entire week off to only having Thanksgiving and the Friday after off, starting next year.
According to the MBUSD Superintendent Michael Matthews, the MBUSD Board of Trustees created this new schedule to end the fall semester prior to Winter Break and to end the school year earlier.
“If we end the school year earlier, it allows students to engage in camps and other opportunities that tend to start before the school year ends,” Matthews said.
According to MBUSD Board of Trustees Vice President Ellen Rosenberg, it took many years to negotiate the change. The board proposed keeping the Nov. and Feb. week-long holidays, but they ended up with the new schedule.
“That is the nature of negotiations.” Rosenberg said. “I am pleased about the new schedule as it achieves the goals.”
MBUSD School Board of Trustees President Bill Fournell said that he prefered that students begin school earlier in Aug. so that students can keep Thanksgiving Break and Ski Week, but after compromising, the Board decided on the new schedule.
“Personally, I would have preferred to shift the entire schedule to start the school year earlier in order to finish earlier while retaining the full Thanksgiving week and ski week,” Fournell said. “I think this new schedule improves and allows students to get an internship or job more easily, have a little break before summer school starts, and allows them participate in summer camps.”
According to MBUSD Board of Trustees Clerk Jen Cochran, the MBUSD Board also made this decision because students need to have as many instructional days as possible before significant tests such as advanced placement exams. Additionally, Cochran said that students should have a break after those exams are taken.
“Our motivation to change it was in the spirit of making the best use of our instructional days for students and staff and to give students a true break between semesters,” Cochran said.
Fournell’s concern is also that students will miss extra days now that there is only a two day Thanksgiving Break and no ski week, which results in missing valuable instruction time. For every day of school that each student at Costa attends, Costa receives funding. The more absences there are, the less funds the district receives.
“We will work to communicate the importance of student attendance to our parent community and monitor our attendance levels closely,” Fournell said. “I believe by being proactive and engaging the parents to support maximizing their student’s instructional time, that we can manage this without negative impact.”
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