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New York City’s holiday gift to public school families and educators: Monday, Dec. 23 will now be a day off.
The shift comes after mounting pressure from school communities warning that a one-day week before winter break would be sparsely attended. Brooklyn eighth grader Isaac Regnier last year petitioned the city to strike the day from the calendar, garnering nearly 23,000 signatures.
At a celebratory announcement at the headquarters of the United Federation of Teachers, Mayor Eric Adams, pointed to the 13-year-old as a catalyst for the change.
“He was able to get this victory,” Adams said. “Young people are going to know that their voices matter.” The mayor also showed a video of a call he placed to Isaac during the school day at I.S. 96 in Bensonhurst. The mayor said he was following through on the student’s request to cancel class on Dec. 23.
“I feel so proud of myself for all that hard work I did,” said Isaac, whose effort was first reported by Chalkbeat.
Although an initial letter he sent to former schools Chancellor David Banks didn’t yield a response, “I still made it successful,” he said.
The claim that Isaac prompted the change generated some raised eyebrows, as pushback over a one-day school week before winter break drew similar backlash five years ago. A group of teachers in 2019 petitioned to get it canceled and ultimately were successful. The teachers behind that effort found old school calendars showing that schools were closed on at least four other occasions when Dec. 23 fell on a Monday.
Leonie Haimson, a longtime education advocate, wrote on X that it was “amazing” that the mayor held a high-profile press conference announcing the change, “drawing attention to a mistake that should never have happened in the first place.”
Under state law, New York City schools must be in session for at least 180 days or risk losing state funding — and there is now considerably less wiggle room in the calendar. Last school year, the Education Department added four days after the calendar had been published in response to complaints about missing certain religious holidays. The city has added days off for Eid, Lunar New Year, and Diwali, which is Friday.
One result of the extra days off is that the city now turns to remote learning during inclement weather instead of canceling school.
The city is not planning to add an additional school day to make up for canceling class on Dec. 23, though Education Department officials insisted that they will still meet the 180-day rule, noting that they are allowed to use some teacher training days to count toward it.
Michael Mulgrew, the teachers union president, pointed to recent changes in the calendar in explaining why the decision to cancel class on Dec. 23 was announced in the middle of the year.
“We’re in New York City. We have the greatest diversity in the world, and we recognize all sorts of cultures’ holidays,” he said. “It’s a 12-month-a year process, to say the least, on the calendar right now.”
Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.
Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.
