Should Schools Still Have a Week-Long February Vacation?

School vacation week is just around the corner and I'm sure kids across the SouthCoast are thrilled. But should the February break still be a thing? 

I was recently talking with my brother-in-law and learned that my niece and nephew don't have a February vacation at their school.

They are in kindergarten, go to the public elementary school in their Rhode Island town, but don't have the full week of break where they go. Just a long weekend.

I thought their school was genius.

They'll take this Friday off and have the President's Day Monday, giving kids a long four-day weekend instead of an entire week-long break.

A perfect amount of time for a little family getaway without making you struggle to find somewhere for your children to go or someone to take care of them for a whole week.

And with many parents probably getting President's Day as an office holiday too, it's even easier.

It made me a little jealous. And made me think "all schools should be doing this."

I mean we just had the winter holiday break, there's a long weekend in January and April vacation will be here before we know it.

Should February vacation be a thing of the past?

I was always told the reason for the week-long break in deep winter was the school's way of combating cold and flu season. And with record high numbers of flu cases in recent years this definitely seems like a valid reason.

But if the flu cases are still rampant, maybe that plan isn't even working?

So should more schools lean towards the long weekend concept for February "break" or should the week-long vacation live on?