Public school students, teachers and staff will get an extra day off for winter break this year thanks to the effort of one Brooklyn middle school student.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Wednesday said public schools will be closed on Monday Dec. 23. Previously, the school calendar had said schools would be open on the 23rd and winter break would commence on Tuesday, Dec. 24.
However, Isaac Regnier, a seventh grader at I.S. 96 in Bensonhurst started a Change.org petition, noting how the previous scheduled didn't make sense.
"Attendance will be very low that day," Regnier said in the petition. "Kids whose families have travel plans will have to change their plans or be marked absent. Kids and teachers will feel annoyed, and kids won’t get to learn anything or have a party with all of their friends (because of the low attendance)."
The middle school student wrote letters to the mayor, former public schools Chancellor David Banks and other educators.
The change to the school calendar all started with one little spark, said Micheal Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers, at a press conference on Wednesday.
"And that spark came from Isaac this summer, who read the calendar and he wrote to a lot of people and said, you know, why are we doing this?"
When asked whether he thought his actions would result in an actual day off, Regnier said he did.
"Yes, I thought I would lead to it, and I did," Regnier said. "A lot of people at school were really proud of me for bringing up this topic, and I'm glad that I brought up this topic too. A lot of people kept on asking me, did you get the date changed? And I hadn’t gotten it changed yet, but now I have. Woo-hoo!"
Young people are bubbling with ideas, Adams said.
"Because they view life at a different set of lens than we do, and if we're not willing to listen to them, we're going to miss many opportunities," he said.
With this change, the last day for New York City public schools is on Friday, Dec. 20. School will resume on Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025.
