Proposed LAUSD calendar commits to three-week winter break

When the Los Angeles Unified School District attempted to shorten winter break in 2023 from three weeks to two, unions and parents responded with legal action and outrage.

The lesson learned is apparent in the newest calendar proposal, in which the district promises the next three years will have a three-week winter break and a mid-August start.

The plan is the latest iteration of an annual puzzle that requires each school district to meet the state-mandated 180 days of school, along with Thanksgiving break, winter break, spring break and various holidays — and then get union sign-off. This year’s proposal is also the first to consider input from students in addition to parents.

The biggest changes are to the optional winter break school days, which would shift to a full week before the start of the second semester.

District officials presented the draft calendars to a board committee meeting in mid-February and expect a final vote in the board’s regular March 11 meeting, though the largest employee unions have yet to sign off on the drafts.

What’s LAUSD's proposed calendar?

The district’s one-week Thanksgiving break dates to the 2012-13 school year and was an attempt to make mandatory furlough days “more palatable,” said school Operations Chief Andrés Chait.

Now, district officials say a one-week Thanksgiving break is the norm among districts in California and nationwide.

LAUSD’s three-week winter break, which started in 2007, is more of an outlier and has the support of a slim majority of parents — 61%, according to an annual survey.

“We have heard concerns from parents around the length of the winter recess and issues around child care, learning loss,” Chait said.

To address those concerns, the district proposes extending Winter Academy from three days to five. The optional winter break program is an evolution of the “acceleration days” that started in 2022 to make up for lost learning during the pandemic.

Chait, a former teacher and principal, said shifting Winter Academy to the week before the spring semester starts makes sense.

“ It's an opportunity to kind of front-load, get the engine going again, whatever your idiom of choice is, in terms of getting our kids ready for second semester,” Chait said.

How does the LAUSD calendar get made?

The district issues a survey to parents, employees and, new this year, high school students.

The 51,400 respondents supported a mid-August start, one-week Thanksgiving break and three-week winter break.

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Courtesy LAUSD

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While it sounds like a lot of people, it represents only a fraction of the community. The  18,000 parents who responded account for 7% of the student population.

There are also a series of negotiations with labor groups to determine the work-year calendar. The two largest are United Teachers Los Angeles and Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 99, which represents support staff including food service, transportation and classroom assistants.

How will LAUSD decide to adopt a new calendar?

Chait said the “hope and expectation” is that the board will vote on the proposed calendars at its March 11 meeting.

At least one board member, Nick Melvoin, plans to vote against the calendar.

“ I think the calendar's coming too late,” Melvoin said. “I think starting the school year on a Thursday and ending on a Wednesday, I think being an outlier when it comes to our breaks is silly.”

Another factor is ongoing negotiations with unionized employees.

SEIU Local 99 Executive Director Max Arias said the current proposed calendar includes too many “unassigned days” where its hourly employees are ineligible for pay.

“ We're not even asking to just get paid out of the blue, but there's work that can be done, there's students that could be caught up,” Arias said.

The teachers union is advocating for the continuation of paid prep days, including at the start of the school year.

“Educators spend their own money and their own time preparing their classrooms every year,” said Victoria Montes, United Teachers Los Angeles east area director. “They do it because they value the environment they're creating for their students.”

Weigh in on LAUSD’s calendar

Update, March 11, 2025: The board voted on this proposal. Here are the results.

LAUSD officials said they expect to present the draft calendars for a vote at the board’s regular March 11 meeting, though the district’s largest employee unions have yet to sign off.

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