At YLHS, students and teachers receive next to no long vacations in between the beginning of the school year and after winter break. They deserve rest from work once in a while and changing around the vacation schedule may be the answer. I believe that the school board should remove one week from summer break and add one extra week to winter break. Doing this would be more beneficial than having such on-going summers and short breaks during the school year.

Students constantly work vigorously throughout the school year and need time to rest and spend time with their families. Adding more time to winter break would allow them to visit family who live outside California. With only two weeks, students have to leave earlier, sometimes before school finishes, or to go on vacation. A longer winter break could lessen the amount of students who leave early. Longer holidays could also allow families more time to visit new places and learn about new cultures. Otherwise, students only travel during the summer and cannot experience the world’s culture at a different time of year. Some places throughout the world celebrate and decorate amazingly during the holidays; however, having so little vacation time, neither students nor teachers can enjoy these festivities.

In addition, changing the organization of school holidays is more convenient for teachers as well. AP classes have to rush through the first few chapters since other schools start earlier in the year. Pushing back the first day of school could increase the productivity of the students in those classes and lessen the stress they are under. Teachers can also benefit from the extra vacation during the year to take some time for themselves.

Summer break is also considered too long by several students. After a while, students begin to be bored and want to go back to school. Kennedy Maddock (10) expressed that “it would benefit [us] because the two weeks sometimes run too close to January 1 and the summer break is just too long.” In fact this year, staff and students must come back to school on January 2nd. Teachers and students are most likely going to celebrate the beginning of the new year and need at least two or three days to recover from the excitement of the new year. Winter break is only eleven days this year, not including weekends. During this time, teachers may assign homework, so it’s only fair that students should receive extra time to do it. Holidays are meant to be for celebration but if students are stuck cramming to finish all their homework, they will not enjoy themselves like they should be. While their families are relaxing and enjoying time together, they will be drowning in homework.

We need more time throughout the school year to have a break from all the work and stress. Removing one week from summer and adding an extra week of vacation could not only help students and teachers enjoy the world around them, but also give them time to rest their minds and be ready for the next semester.