After students and staff spend months immersed in rigorous schedules, Thanksgiving break bliss comes at last. But hold on, only three school days off? In the nearby Cupertino Union School District and other local high school districts, students enjoy a full week without school. But in FUHSD, the Monday and Tuesday of that week proceed as stand-alone block days, and are often unproductive. The Fremont Education Association, the district’s teacher union, is currently gathering feedback regarding the possibility of extending break to a full week, and implementing this change would benefit students, parents and school staff.
Thanksgiving break is an important time for students and teachers to recharge, catch up on work and grading or start studying for finals. The full week off gives more breathing room for all to juggle their responsibilities.
“I’d be able to catch up on other work I have to do for classes or start studying for finals earlier,” junior Sandhya Kumar said. “I also play soccer, so we can get more rest time with a longer break.”
Furthermore, the two school days in Thanksgiving week are confusing for both teachers and students. With break around the corner, the purpose of these days teeters between two fates: additional rigor or pure relaxation. While some teachers put on movies or plan fun activities, others try to incentivize attendance with tests. The days either rush or delay curriculum, creating imbalances and adding stress.
“I think that if we had those two days removed, it’d be much, much easier to attend vacations and relax,” sophomore Max Hwa said. “I also think that having those two days off just contributes to mental health in general, because we just need our rest.”
However, removing the instructional days from Thanksgiving week means they will need to be added somewhere else. California mandates schools to be in session for a minimum of 180 days each school year. The current FUHSD schedule meets this minimum exactly. To maintain this, the days could be moved to October, March or the start of the school year, which would remove the three-day weekends in those months. Moving instructional days to October would take away the only day off in that month, further adding to stress. Therefore, the days fit best at the beginning of the year.
“There is a long spell between Labor Day in early September and Thanksgiving without much in the way of a break,” FEA school representative and science teacher Thanh Nguyen said. “Students and teachers alike get burned out during this time period right at the beginning of the year, and some teachers even coined a term for this time period: ‘DEVOLSON: The Dark, Evil Vortex of Late September, October, and November.’”
A full week of break would provide other benefits, such as more time for staff to supervise their children, since many have the full week off, or an opportunity for families to go on a full vacation.
“It will open up a different level of travel because of the difference of what you can do with a whole week off as opposed to four or five days,” FEA negotiator and math teacher Brad Fulk said. “We had one year where my family went to China because we took that week off. We could have never done that had I not taken those two days off.”
The solution to move the current instructional days from Thanksgiving week to the beginning of the school year — starting school on Thursday instead of Monday in August — helps better distribute breaks across the first semester for both students and teachers. Additionally, it could help align athletic schedules with the school calendar, as fall sports currently start the week before the first day of school.
“School should start earlier because then break time can be distributed more evenly throughout the year,” Kumar said. “I would rather have a longer break in the middle of the year than have a longer break and start the year earlier, because I already had two months before summer.”
Although moving Thanksgiving break may pose minor inconveniences, they are outweighed by widespread benefits for both students and staff.
Change can be influenced by student voices as well. The most direct way to bring up opinions is during the monthly district board meetings. While students can always offer their perspective to teachers, board members are the ones with final say on all district-level decisions.
“The decisions that are made are not because we’re thinking of what’s best for us — we’re making them because we’re thinking of what’s best for the students,” Fulk said. “And that comes from feedback from them.”
