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Putnam County added this entire week off this year for the first time. As a parent who splits holidays with my childs father this was helpful. This year will be my thanksgiving with my child so I put in for a vacation week at work and will now be able to enjoy the whole week, with my child preparing for our holiday with family. This also helps when traveling out of town as we do every year at this time. I would also like to add, I love listening to you every morning as i start my workday. Great music choice.

Great comments, Trish! Thanks for your input! -Chris

I never thought about the split-custody benefit of this scheduling - that's an interesting point taken, Trish. That being said, I don't buy the "nothing is accomplished in two days" argument because I still think they could be put to good use. We had the same schedule when I was a kid and I don't recall it being a waste of time at all. We had assignments to do, then maybe the last hour of the second day we had a class party. And the majority of families I know don't travel for an entire week over Thanksgiving. They already have that Wednesday off as it is to help with getting from place to place. A full week off is also a hardship for working parents. Yes, child are facilities are open - but it's not like they're free. On such holidays, care generally costs $20-25 per day. So it's up to an extra $50 that they have to spend at a time when people are having a hard time affording the basics as it is.

I have employees and friends who have young children and cannot afford any more child care. Seems like the kids are never in school as it is. Will these days be added to the school year or will kids just get cheated out of some of their education? I could agree with this if the days were made up and the kids received the education they deserve.

Is it educationally sound to give students more days off during the school year? Research shows NO for most students. The longer students have off, the more class time is needed for teachers to reteach material when students return.

The days will be made up at the end of the school calendar.

As a new resident to Alachua from a county that already had the week off, we were very happy to see this change made. IMO kids have been to schools that had both schedules and I can say that very little education was accomplished in an a Mon/Tues school week. It is a welcome break and did not adversely affect my kids education, but did make traveling and visiting family much easier. As for child care, I find it much more difficult to manage the every Wed early release. I fail to understand how that helps my education. It is supposed to be for teacher development, but in outr prior 2 couties((both in the top of the state), this was accomplished in a single half-day early release per quarter which is far easier to manage than a consistent weekly early-release.