Reply To: Working parent letter: two implementable ideas I posted

avhaben: I am aware that girls do not have school on sunday. However,girls elementary school charges are almost on par with boys yet their teachers have off every sunday and in many cases every other friday.Girl schools also have more vacation time in general.

Asking a teacher to stay till 1pm on friday when shabbos starts at 5pm or later can make a tremendous difference to a parent. As mentioned above plenty of industries have been giving back in order to survive. The Rebbes switching time from Sunday to Friday will not cost a penny more nor will co-ordinated vacation weeks between all schools.

Re school in July: As opposed to a decade ago far less people have been sending their children away for the eight weeks of summer. This has resulted in a number of frum camps closing down,many rent out their grounds to vacationers and yeshivas, and others now have day camps on their premises.Unfortunately many are just struggling to remain vialble entities. Even camps that received UJA grants had to raise tuition significantly this past summer to a level that many parents simply could not afford as UJA slashed funding.As part of this topic fewer families have been going up to the the catskills due to the high cost and most women are unable to get away from work as they must meet tuition obligations. If you live in Flatbush you can see the proof in front of you.

Stores and streets which used to be completely empty during the summer are now at least half full.

I am sorry if I was not clear but of course I expect that tuition should be charged for July. An eight week break is not good for anyone. Parents struggle with the additional costs of summer and camp.Certainly, most Rebbes and teachers do not like finding themselves in the unenviable position of looking for summer work, many times having to find one job for July and one for August.A light learning schedule (with 1/2 amount H.W.)plus supervised physical and educational activity would be a good break and compromise for all. Students will have free time and perhaps concentrate on certain limudei kodesh or secular matter that they would not normally have time for and the extra physical activity would be no different then when a teacher watches kids during recess.Similar systems (with shorter hours) are in place till late June/early July in Baltimore and Lakewood. I would propose a regular school schedule with the exception for boys who usually end past 5 pm to end no later then 430/5pm as this way the boys have a continued break and teachers still have some extra time off despite getting paid at whatever their current salary level is.

In some states outside the NY area a shortened summer vacation or a higher amount of school days is already the norm. Many western countries (among them Japan, Australia, England ) for decades have had a four-six week summer vacation.