Seattle schools to bring back full midwinter break

Kids will be overjoyed but some parents won’t be pleased, after the Seattle School District announced Thursday midwinter break will be back in full next year.

This year, the traditional week-long break was dropped as teachers experimented with a three-day school week sandwiched by two three-day weekend.

But a survey of union members found a nearly equal split between teachers who favored the week-long break and those that liked the shortened break with the extra weekend, Seattle Education Association Jonathan Knapp said.

So the union has bargained to get the entire week of February 17-21 off, and then go back to the shorter break in 2015.

While the Seattle School District has already announced next year’s schedule with the week-long break, the final decision on future scheduling must be approved by the Seattle School Board.