Aside from summer, the longest break Gretna Public Schools (GPS) students will get this school year is 10 school days long, but sophomore Nicholas Mitchell isn’t satisfied with that. The Gretna East student has sparked community and even national attention with his Change.org petition to extend winter break, but GPS administration says it’s not as simple as signing a petition.
“I think, if you ask anybody, especially students, and say, ‘Hey, who wants another week off from school?’ it’ll be very popular,’” GPS Superintendent Travis Lightle said. “But if you ask them, ‘Are you willing to have another week off of school if you have to go a week later in the summer or come back a week earlier?’ Students then may say, I’m not sure of that. So, when I saw that petition in particular, I don’t think that was something that would even be remotely possible.”
From winter sports to teacher-in-service days, the district’s goal is to fit 178 school days onto the calendar. In addition, according to their contract, GPS-certified staff members are required to have 190 days in school, so they are required to return from winter break on Jan. 3 instead of Jan. 6 with students. However, one argument of Mitchell and his supporters have is that GPS has the district with the highest number of school days in the Metro.
“They’re not wrong in the sense that we do have the most [days],” Lightle said. “Elkhorn’s, really close, they have 177. We also have the very last day of school, which is a half day. So do we have 178, or do we have 177 and a half? The other thing is, if you look at other calendars, they have snow days built in. We’ve never had to come back and make any up. So that’s the other balance, is, do you want your snow days definitely off or are you willing to say?”
According to Lightle, if days were added to winter break, students and staff would either have to start their school year a week earlier or stay a week later.
“The biggest priority is the days; 190 and 178,” Lightle said. “It seems as though the district, once they went to a full week of spring break that’s been a priority. I’ve been in the district a long time. I remember when we had spring break, [it] was only the day before Easter and [the] day after. That was spring break. There was no full week off. At one point, the board decided they wanted a full week of spring break. So, then it got moved the week before Easter. So that’s kind of one priority now is, ‘Are we going to have a full week of spring break?’ The other thing is, trying to get two weeks of Christmas.”
This year, Christmas and New Year’s Day fall on Wednesdays, which was another factor in the length of the break.
“You don’t want to have school on the 23rd and 24th that just doesn’t make sense,” Lightle said. “So this year, you kind of had to have two full weeks of Christmas [break].”
However, despite this year’s break being longer than last year’s, Mitchell wanted to make a change. His petition, which was started on Nov. 11, has garnered more than 515 verified signatures.
“You see these stories on the news about, small people, school students, they want stuff to change,” Mitchell said. “They want something small. They want the logic to change. They want whatever, and you never really think you’re ever going to see that story in your life. Then I just sort of tripped over that opportunity.”
The popularity of his petition to extend winter break came as somewhat of a surprise to Mitchell.
“It was a complete joke,” he said. “Then, I posted it and I shared it. Five, 10, 25, then 50 signatures and it’s like, ‘Oh my god, we can change something.’”
The petition has support from people throughout GPS, neighboring districts and even people in other states.
“I’m going to share this with you; you share it with three people; that’s how people shared it,” Mitchell said. “Eventually, Millard got their hands on it and it started going there. Then, I think, Elkhorn got their hands on it. It doesn’t even affect them, but it’s going around. I think someone got a signature from California and Texas. So it’s everywhere.”
Aside from administration’s and Mitchell’s feelings, student reactions have varied.
“I think students have tried to do petitions like this previously, and none of them have been effective,” junior Kristin Tuff said. “But, it’s nice to see the student body come together on something they agree on, but it’s impractical and illogical.”
On the other hand, one petition signer, junior Morgan Zabloudil said, “I think it would encourage people to come to school more if we had longer breaks.”
Despite the hopes or concerns of some GPS students, Mitchell’s goal isn’t to alter this year’s calendar.
“I know this year is final,” he said. “I could get every signature in the district and it wouldn’t change, but my hope is they change it for next year so that maybe in the future, students have more free time on their hands, more time to take a break from the last 90 days.”
This story was originally published on The Wingspan on December 12, 2024.