Ours didn’t. I just looked at the current calendar, and it’s Aug 22 start and June 6 finish (if no snow dates, otherwise, it’s 9th, 10th, or 11th if snow dates are needed.)
In Virginia, I believe the law is that schools need to get an exception to start before Labor Day. For most of my public education, we started the Tuesday after Labor Day and, of course, I liked stretching out summer. However, I think it makes less sense than starting a week or two earlier and more or less matching up with the college schedule, or perhaps what makes sense in different areas of the country.
If a public school can sync up with colleges, I’d think it would make family things for when kids are back from college easier. If you’re in a particularly hot part of the country, or a place susceptible to hurricanes or whatever, it might make sense to adjust the holiday to make handling those things easier.
Frankly, though, I think year-round school is the better option. Being out of school for 2 1/2 to 3 months is counter-productive and makes it difficult to have continuity between grades. I’d rather have kids get maybe 4-6 weeks, maybe as much as 8 max, and just give a few more, or slightly longer breaks throughout the year as necessary.
Our public schools start the week before Labor Day and go about a week and a half into June. We get most federal holidays (not Columbus or Veteran’s Day), Election Day in an even year, a professional day every quarter, and 4 days built in for snow, plus a week-ish for winter and spring break around Christmas and Easter. I wish it started in September but then we’d end later, too.
The schools also close for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. So yesterday was off, and Thursday will be, too. (Yom Kippur is on a Saturday this year).
I hated it if the start of school got anywhere close to my birthday (which is near the end of August). Traditionally we always started the Tuesday after Labor Day, but that was beginning to be phased out by the time I graduated high school. The idea was that the school system was sacrificing too many days to snow days and therefore had to start earlier if they had any hope of finishing the end of the year around June 10th or earlier.
I also hated any attempt to go to a quarterly system wherein the kids would get a two-week break off between quarters and a slightly extended break in the summer. I very much wanted my freedom as a lump sum. I also fought any uniform regulations with a passion.
I don’t know that there’s much “should” to it. We started earlier in August and finished mid-May. When you’re taking multiple AP tests (I think I had five one year) it’s nice not to have an extra month tacked on after.
I have a 5th and 7th grader. I like that we went back Aug. 5th this year. Getting done mid-May means we can take a nice early-summer trip while the weather is still nice most places. Plus its freaking HOT here in August and the kids can’t go outside and play anyway, so the choices are school or just sitting in front of a computer or TV. I’d much rather they be in school.
No kidding. My kids peak in early May. Everything after that is time-filling. It should go AP exams, finals, graduation in one three-week stretch.
The school district here uses a schedule something like that except it’s 9 weeks on 3 weeks off with a couple extra weeks at Christmas and 4th of July. The idea is you can split the kids up into 4 groups with 3 in school and one on vacation at any given point, allowing you to handle more kids with the same number of classrooms.
It works brilliantly for us. There’s enough time in the summer for a couple weeks of sleep away camp, but the breaks are short enough that they don’t have to re-learn everything when they go back to school. If we decide to take a vacation we can go when the ski slopes, national parks, or whatever are empty. If we don’t there’s a small industry of 3 week camps which occur year round for kids on break.
Once the kids hit high school they have to go back to a traditional school calendar and I’m going to miss this schedule.
Kids here start after Labour Day, and go till the last week of June. Sounds reasonable to me.
I’d vote for year round if I could, and a longer school day while I’m at it!
I believe schools in NH should go back to starting after Labor Day. We don’t have air conditioning in schools up here, and the average temperature in August is higher than in June, so I don’t like the idea of them going to school earlier like the trend has moved towards.
My district used to start earlier, with semester exams in January. A few years ago a group of parents and teachers went to the superintendent to ask about finishing the semester before Christmas, so the kids didn’t have so much work over Christmas break (one year I think my daughter was given three books to read and two papers to write).
Now if you want the semester over bt Christmas, and three days off for Thanksgiving, and Veteran’s Day, and you are also petitioning for a “Fall Break” for the kids (I live in a university town), something has to give, and that was the starting day of school. So it seems to get earlier each year.
Not here
It’s end of August to middle of June.
The summer gets shorter every year but they get more holidays and other days off during the year.
One year it was months before the kids had a full 5 day week of school between all the holidays, in service days, and whatever other days the system can come up with.
After, so that we can all attend Burning Man
Started before Labour Day and have done so for the last few years.
Ideally the answer should be neither IMO as I believe summer vacation should be abolished and instead replaced with say a week-long vacations every month or so (with some adjustments obviously).
I’m pretty sure I recall it starting right after Labor Day in first and second grades, then always in late August after that where I grew up in West Texas. The school board may have moved up the starting date.
But pity Hawaii. Admissions Day, a state holiday commemorating when they entered the Union in 1959, is August 21, and when I went to the university there, the semester always started just before that. So we had a holiday within days, then Labor Day.
I like the idea of a year round school year. Long summer vacations is a relic of the agricultural age when they needed a break that long to ensure the kids would actually be in school for most of the lessons.
2-3 week breaks spread throughout the year means less knowledge loss while allowing for more than enough downtime and just be a kid time.
No way! I lived for my three-month summer breaks when I was a kid.
Total agreement with Sam. And I’m a teacher! Touch not my summer, you bounder!
I’m in the “It doesn’t matter to me” camp. However, I do wish there was some way to synchronize spring breaks