1. Is this a joke? I don’t think there is anything left to shorten!

   I grew up out of town, but I was just saying how I feel so bad for these poor Lakewood children that they get such a short time off

   Why should it be any shorter? They are kids

2. Question is too broad.

   All schools?
   Just Girls schools who start much later than boys schools?
   What’s called earlier?

3. Boys school not. But girls school should definitely start closer to the time the boys start.

4. NO!!! There are no days off besides yt if you haven’t noticed we haven’t had snow days. We have long winters and it’s gotten too much. They’ve basically taken away midwinter vacation now you want to shorten the only days off they have??? Looking for more troubled kids???

   • The question is does a 2 week gap of unsupervised time off for elementary school aged children a good idea? And the answer is of course NO!

     The points you bring up about giving more off days may be true but it must be in a responsible manner. With the ability for proper supervision…

     This 2 week unsupervised gap is extremely dangerous and does much more harm than good for these children

5. No! My boys had a really short break, are back in school already and could’ve uses more time off!

   • short break ? they had half day camp in yeshiva once English ended and then almost another month of regular full day camp? After that they had week off before yeshiva started ,what makes u think they need more time than that ?

6. The girls and boys need to be on a closer schedule. these 2 weeks of half days for boys make it impossible for working parents, and many many families have 2 parents working these days to afford the cost of living. OOT the school schedules match better so there is 2 consistent weeks off for both boys and girls and parents can make that work. the current situation is untenable and boys are left to their own devices for half a day for 2 weeks in 2 working parent families…

7. Should the schools switch things to accommodate the parents or should the parents be responsible to take jobs that allow them to care for their children during the gap times?

   • are you retarded ?

     • While I understand the strong feelings behind your comment, David, the use of the “r” word is completely unacceptable. For those who are unaware, it is an insensitive slur related to individuals with disabilities.

     • hi,
       I was quite taken by the eloquence of your words and it took me quite a while to find my tongue to be able to reply to the sheer genius of your comment. While I could reply to your elegant question literally, I fear that that will not make you happy and I want to make you happy.
       You apparently didn’t like the comment that I made, while I wasn’t giving my opinion. I was just reading a lot of back-and-forth, with some hyperbole mixed in, so I just gave a synopsis of the question, presenting, in very short, both sides. Now, that I explained my comment, please explain yours, as I may not be a smart as you to catch on to the wisdom of your words, given with such brevity. In fact, in relation to you and your utter brilliance, perhaps I am retarded.

8. Is balancing the 2 not an option? Why cant the gap times for boys and girls match up so that parents can better make it work out like they do OOT ?

9. Exactly the school’s expect parents to pay as close to full tuition as possible but make the schedule so it’s impossible to earn a living. The schedule needs to be more uniform as far as boys and girls. Besides the parents what would be so terrible if families spent time together???

10. Next year Rosh Chodesh Elul will be after Labor day.
    The boys and the girls will start the same time.

11. Of course they should be in school already. They’ve had vacation since June 21. In every other country, the girls have started. Why shouldn’t they learn about the yamim noraim instead of being bored at home now. I love my girls home but now it’s school time.

    • In Israel the Bais Yaakov and Chassidish girls start Sept 1

      Schools that hosted camps need turnover time.

12. A new TLS poll asking respondents whether Lakewood elementary schools should start the new school year earlier revealed that 95.7% of children between the ages of 5 and 12 would prefer that “the school year start a LOT later than usual”, rather than earlier, while the other 4.3% would “prefer not to go to school at all!”
    93% of the children who responded to the poll said they would prefer boating, swimming, amusement park rides, ice cream consumption and sleeping activites over school “hands down, any day of the year!”, while the other 7% said that “going to school is not even an option, and should never have been mentioned in the survey.”
    Hundreds of children reportedly responded to the poll, while tens of thousands of other children insisted they were too busy having fun, enjoying their summer vacation and goofing off to respond to polls.
    “We haven’t got time for polls right now!” said the incredibly busy children. “We’re having a real summertime blast right now! Get back to us when school begins, especially during Mr. Smith’s science class – oy, vey! – and we promise you, we’ll respond to every single poll you throw at us!”

13. I’m not orthodox so I do have a couple of questions. Why do girls get treated differently than the boys? In most of society, children get over 2 months off, you complain because of 2 weeks. I don’t get it.

    • Girls’ schools finish close to the end of June and start again after Labor Day, which is similar to the local public school schedule. The issue is that all day camps end two weeks (or more) before school start, leaving families with a large gap in time to fill. When both parents are working to support the typically larger family size than an average American family, this creates a significant financial challenge as parents need to take time off of work to be with their children. This challenge would be mitigated if the the boys’ schedule would be the same. However, most boys’ elementary schools in Lakewood finish regular school sometime in June, then have an additional month of a combined learning/day camp schedule. Then typically there’s 3.5 weeks of day camp available for those who need it and another week or two of vacation before school starts again. Because they set their schedule based on the Jewish holiday schedule (which goes according to the lunar calendar, not the solar calendar), the schedules end up misaligned many years. This year the boys are back in school but the girls just finished day camp and have another two weeks until school begins. Essentially this requires parents to provide up to 4 weeks of childcare for their large families outside of the regular structure- 2 weeks for their boys followed by two weeks for their girls. You can imagine that losing a months’ salary isn’t really viable for most people, not will most bosses tolerate that. People are anxious for a solution that combines the unstructured time of both their girls and boys so that they can minimize the time taken off from work and, perhaps even more importantly, spend some quality family time together with everyone off on the same schedule.

      • A working Mom, this still didn’t clarify why the boys are treated differently than the girls? Why does everything have to be structured? Do the kids ever get to be kids? I’m lost. The rest of America can manage, why can’t the orthodox community?

        • Many of the elementary orthodox boys schools here in Lakewood are yeshivish and are on a similar schedule to Beth Medrash Govoha. They aren’t learning the usual school curriculum now, they are studying Torah. They have a significantly shortened school day until September when they resume learning math, ELA etc.

          The girls’ schools aren’t considered to be yeshivos so they’re either in school or not. They don’t have these half days.

          Since the boys are only in school for part of the day until September, they still have plenty of playtime for the remainder of the summer.

14. To Mel.

    The Orthodox community can definitely manage. . I wouldn’t take 10 anonymous commentors on a blog to be the voice of the Orthodox community

15. Just do away with summer vacation/camps & there’ll be nothing to worry about.

    • EXACTLY

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