Planning spring vacation next year? Modesto, other districts weeks apart

Modesto City Schools will observe a different spring break next school year – one that’s four weeks earlier than the traditional Easter-based vacation observed by the two largest school districts that feed into the city’s high schools.

The thousands of parents with high schoolers in the Modesto district and younger kids in the Sylvan Union and Stanislaus Union districts may need to rethink plans for a family getaway, among other complications that will arise from the differing weeks off. Modesto City Schools will observe spring break March 20-24. Sylvan and Stanislaus Union, among other “feeder” districts, will observe spring break April 14-21.

Modesto made the switch from a typical weeklong spring vacation that follows the Easter holiday to one that follows the end of the academic quarter. But last week’s school board vote came long after Modesto’s largest feeder districts had set traditional breaks to start Good Friday, and the district’s non-teaching staff union has not signed off on the switch.

“This is a radical change for us,” said Aaron Castro, president of the California School Employees Association Modesto chapter that covers workers such as bus drivers, secretaries, campus security officers and custodians. The union filed a grievance March 11 over the new calendar, which he said schedules members to work the traditional calendar in 2017.

“We did a survey in the fall. Our members overwhelmingly did not want to change spring break,” Castro said Friday. CSEA will meet next week with the district, but could head to court over the issue, he said.

But teachers did want the change, said Modesto Teachers Association President Doug Burton. “Seventy-four percent of our members who responded to our bargaining survey said they were in support of a secular, predictable spring break,” Burton said via email.

The break now falls just after the quarter ends for high school, regardless of where Easter falls each year.

“The driving force behind this move is education,” said MTA chief negotiator Chris Peterson, a high school teacher, via email. “I strongly support this change. I think the new schedule will be better for our students.

“Two years ago, state testing was disrupted by spring break,” he said, “That is a mistake we do not want to repeat.” Next year’s late Easter puts the traditional break right when high school students are reviewing for Advanced Placement tests.

“I recognize feeder district concerns about the change to spring break. We hope establishing the precedent will be clear to all interested community groups and districts. One perspective to consider: The feeder districts don’t have high schools – MCS does,” Peterson said. The district and MTA are now working on firming up the 2017-18 calendar to help its feeder districts plan, he added.

Seven elementary school districts, serving kindergarten through eighth grade, feed into Modesto City Schools high schools.

Modesto did not discuss its plans with any of them, but Deputy Superintendent Craig Rydquist responded to inquiries with his “best guess” on key dates, said MCS spokeswoman Becky Fortuna via email Friday.

“Negotiating in good faith prevents parties from discussing specifics away from the negotiations table,” Fortuna wrote, adding that this year’s spring break was only officially approved Feb. 29. The calendar for 2016-17 was approved by the board May 9, she said. “We posted the important dates, including the first/last day of school, holidays and breaks on our website and social media accounts the following day.”

The differing spring breaks prompted Sylvan Union School District trustee David Collins, speaking as a Sylvan parent, to address the board April 18. Calling the calendar mismatch a “very unfortunate and very avoidable situation,” he asked Modesto City Schools to work with its elementary districts in future years.

“One of the chief priorities the feeder districts have in creating their calendars is to purposefully align with yours. This way the hundreds, I’ll repeat, hundreds of families who have children in both districts will have the opportunity to spend family time together,” Collins said.

Sylvan, Modesto’s largest feeder district, will keep its traditional break next year, but look at changing in 2018 to the secular calendar Modesto has adopted, said Sylvan Superintendent Debra Hendricks.

“The Sylvan Union School District is concerned about the inconvenience this might cause our families. As for the possibility of attendance loss, we will be collecting data to share with the board and stakeholders,” said Hendricks, who like most of the superintendents responded by email.

The second-largest feeder district also found out too late to switch, wrote Stanislaus Union Superintendent Britta Skavdahl.

“Stanislaus Union had a calendar in place long before Modesto City Schools was able to finalize their schedule. Upon adoption of the calendar we had locked in staff development activities with outside vendors locked in,” she said. The district prefers to align with Modesto, she said, but needs to plan ahead.

“I think it would be an excellent idea for all districts who share students to sit down and develop calendars for a three-year time span with some universally agreed upon holiday-vacation dates. Districts would have the local control authority to individualize but it would standardize a lot of issues,” Skavdahl said.

Hart-Ransom Union School District and Salida Union School District were able to switch their calendars.

“We found out about the MCS change in time to consider adjusting,” said Hart-Ransom Superintendent Matthew Shipley. Hart-Ransom students will be out the same week as Modesto, and to minimize the impact on families they will also be out Good Friday and the Monday after Easter, he noted.

“We have a value for having our calendar be aligned with the MCS calendar in terms of breaks when possible because many of our families have students in both districts. Therefore, we will continue to consider in future years how we can arrange our calendar to accomplish this,” Shipley said.

Salida Superintendent Twila Tosh said her district was able to switch as well.

“We do see an increase of student absences if we are in session but MCS is not and we have many parent complaints about having to keep up with two different vacations which creates a child care issue. For this reason, our Board decided to adopt a student attendance calendar which basically mirrors MCS calendar,” Tosh said via email.

The remaining three districts said they chose to keep their calendars as they were. Empire Union School District Superintendent Dave Garcia, reached by phone, said his district talked it over, but decided to keep its spring break where it traditionally falls.

“It is possible to switch our calendar,” Paradise Elementary School District Superintendent Heath Thomason said, “but we have worked with numerous stakeholders and bringing people back to the table takes time and families want a calendar before we leave for summer break.”

Families have a tough time scheduling day care and vacations when the schedules don’t match, and the district will be talking about what’s best for future calendars, he wrote.

“We do have traditions and past practices that play into our decision-making, but ultimately, we want to make decisions that are good for the kids in our community,” Thomason said.

The Shiloh Elementary School District, however, has no plans to change its traditional spring break, Superintendent Seth Ehrler said Friday over the phone.

“Modesto City honestly has waffled back and forth in so many directions over the years,” Ehrler said. Shiloh students stretch summer by taking only two weeks at Christmas and having fewer holidays, something his farming families prefer, he said.

“We work to serve our community and don’t worry so much about what Modesto’s doing,” Ehrler said.

This story was originally published May 14, 2016 at 4:32 PM with the headline "Planning spring vacation next year? Modesto, other districts weeks apart."