“As for the teachers and all school employees who will find this post very annoying,let me tell you that you get off a whole summer,and still get paid,and if this would be any other job in a store or office,it wouldnt just come with a week-ten days off in the end of Jan. just for nothing….
Also,didnt we just have anice break two weeks ago when our schools got cancelled for 3 days??”
Although it’s been mentioned, this whole idea of “getting paid over the summer” is meaningless. In every Yeshiva (or public school for that matter) that I know of, salaries are agreed upon as a yearly amount. A teacher makes “x” dollars for a year of work, and obviously when they make the agreement they know what a year of work includes (i.e. it doesn’t include summer, yomtif, etc.) Then the yearly salary is divided either by 10 months or 12 months depending on how that school works their payroll. A teacher getting paid in the summer is simply having their salary divided up differently — they’re not “getting paid for the summer”! That would be like saying a person who gets a paycheck every week gets paid for his work every week, but if you only get a paycheck every other week, you’re only getting paid for every other week’s work! In any job the employer and employee arrange a deal that includes all the factors — what the working hours are, how much vacation time, salary, etc. Most jobs “in a store or office” come with a certain amount of vacation/ sick time, which you take into account when you take a job. Some people may take a job that pays less with the understanding that they have more flexibility to take vacation time, and some jobs may have more flexible hours, or less vacation and more pay. If the salary isn’t enough to justify the hours required people wouldn’t take the job. (BTW This is true for tuition as well. When you were told the price for tuition you already knew the school calendar — no school in the summer, time off for winter break, etc. So no one owes you a tuition refund because of the break! Again tuition is per year, not per day or month. Some schools bill over 10 months, and some over 12, but it neither case are you “paying for the summer”!)
Teachers in yeshivos make relatively low salaries per hour of work, even factoring in all the “getting off just for nothing”, and especially if you include preparation time and paperwork. Many good teachers are in this field for the sake of our children, despite having the ability to make much more money for their efforts in other fields or in public schools. Many teachers would require a higher salary if they were working in the school during the summer, as they count on that time to take other jobs to supplement the too low salaries that our yeshivos pay!
Winter break may or may not make sense for various reasons, but to complain about teachers’ salaries and working conditions is not fair.
BTW — The yeshiva my boys went to in NY was off for 3 days each year for winter vacation (either Thurs., Fri. , Sunday or Sun., Mon., Tue.) — I think it’s only the girls schools that give off a week. We never went away, as I was working and not off, but there were always plenty of other families who stayed locally as well. Many years I simply arranged “play dates” for my boys on those days. If that’s not enough, maybe you can find some high school girls who are also off to arrange some sort of “backyard camp” or supervise your kids on local trips. If your kids are older, let them make the camp for younger kids around! Maybe you’re hanging around the wrong people or sending your kids to the wrong schools if your kids are viewed as “nebs” because they didn’t go away for a fancy vacation.