UFT President Michael Mulgrew speaks at union headquarters on Oct. 30, announcing that Dec. 23 will now be a school holiday, as (from left) UFT Vice President for Education Mary Vaccaro, schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos and activist IS 96 student Isaac Regnier of Brooklyn look on.
Monday, Dec. 23, will now be a school holiday, thanks to union advocacy, parental support and a student petition backed by UFT members from across the city.
UFT President Michael Mulgrew, New York City Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos and Mayor Eric Adams announced the agreement at a press conference on Oct. 30 at UFT headquarters. Mulgrew called the change an “early holiday present.”
“Dec. 23 will no longer be a day when we have school. It will be the beginning of the holiday,” he said. “And that is a joyful announcement because we have heard from so many folks in our school communities.”
The one-day week just before winter break had been a sore point for educators, administrators and parents, Mulgrew said, but the spark for the change came from a student at IS 96 in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. Isaac Regnier, who is 13, created an online petition last spring that garnered nearly 23,000 signatures with the help of UFT members.
In years past, when Dec. 23 fell on a Monday, the Department of Education often closed schools, including in 2019 and 2013. In years when it kept them open, attendance was poor. Without Dec. 23 as a school day this year, New York City schools will still be in compliance with the 180-day minimum required by the state, said union officials.
The Mayor’s Office showed a video of Adams telling Isaac on speakerphone that morning that he would be off on Dec. 23, news that set off whoops and clapping in Isaac’s classroom. “I am so excited to be off that day. Finally!” Isaac said. He was cheered by students and staff who lined the halls as he left school that day and even signed some autographs.
“A lot of people kept on asking me ‘Did you get the date changed?’ and I said, ‘I haven’t gotten it changed yet,’ but now I have,” Isaac said at the press conference that took place after school. “Woohoo!”
Aviles-Ramos, who took the reins on Oct. 16, said the outcome illustrated her approach to labor relations.
“This is an example of what happens when you work with your labor partners and not against them,” she said. “We need to really make that partnership something that happens on a regular basis.”
Note: This article was first published on the UFT website on Oct. 30. An abbreviated version of this story ran in the print edition of the Dec. 19 issue of the New York Teacher.