It isn’t actually a new issue. It comes up every few years when Elul falls out so early on the secular calendar

AS

the menahel of an elementary school in the Tristate area, I embrace much of my job. Discovering and supporting talented rebbeim and morahs, farhering classes, speaking at yeshivah functions, dealing with challenging students… I thrive on it all.

But then there are the stickier parts of the job, like creating the school calendar. Uch. Figuring out when to schedule all the school functions in a way that fits into everyone and their grandmother’s schedule requires a math genius with a PhD in the Hebrew/English calendar.

The biggest dilemma is deciding when to end school and begin the next year.

There are basically three models that boys’ elementary schools follow:

1. There are yeshivos that give ten weeks off from the end of June until after Labor day, similar to the local public school system. This is the model followed by most yeshivos in the Tristate area outside of Lakewood.
2. In Lakewood (and some other places, including Toronto and some schools in Monsey…) the boys have still have school (albeit usually without general studies) in July. These yeshivos typically give off five weeks or so from mid-July to late August.
3. A majority of out-of-town schools follow their local public-school schedule, and end school in the middle of June and start again at the end of August.

(This article isn’t intended to discuss the length of summer vacation, an often-debated topic, just how to schedule it. For the record, this writer is not at all a proponent of shrinking summer vacation, but every school should discuss this with their Vaad Hachinuch.)

In any event, while this has been the system for a long time, here’s what has changed.

Thousands of our talmidim go to sleepaway camps. And while day camp is a cheaper option that many families choose, the reality is that sleepaway camps are thriving and are important partners in the chinuch of our children.

Now, in the past, camps would end at the end of August and the boys would have a week to rest up and get ready for school right after Labor Day. But that’s no longer the case. As Torahdig camps need bnei Torah as staff, the camps have been shifting their schedules to accommodate the bochurim who work there. And over the last decade, most mesivtos and almost all batei medrash have begun giving off between four and five weeks in the summer, and beginning again on Rosh Chodesh Elul, irrespective of the English date. This forces camps to end a day or two before Rosh Chodesh Elul to allow their staff to prepare for the new zeman.

This brings us to the punchline. This year, Rosh Chodesh Elul is going to be… August 13! Every single camp that I have spoken is ending by August 12.

Practically speaking, if we just sit back and leave the calendar the way it’s always been, we begin school next year the day after Labor Day, September 1. This gives the boys almost a full three weeks between camp and school. That’s three weeks of unstructured hanging around. Raise your hand if you think that’s a recipe for success. Thought so.

So what do we do? Many of my fellow menahelim have been discussing this topic for months. It isn’t actually a new issue. It comes up every few years when Elul falls out so early on the secular calendar.

Here is a summary of the discussions we have been having:

In an ideal world, we would structure our yeshivah summer vacation around Elul. Instead of having vacation in July and August, we would have vacation in Tammuz and Av, give or take a few days.

This new schedule offers many potential benefits:

1. If we started yeshivah earlier in Elul, our rebbeim and morahs would have much more time to better prepare our talmidim for the Yamim Noraim. As it stands, we sometimes have barely a week before Rosh Hashanah.
2. Keeping children engaged in the weeks after Pesach is always a challenge. Ending earlier in June doesn’t sound so detrimental.
3. We would avoid this scenario where there are huge gaps of time between camp and school.

It isn’t so simple though. Here are some of the challenges changing the schedule would present:

1. By far, the biggest obstacle is girls’ schools, which aren’t affected by this calendar conundrum. Almost all girl schools (even in Lakewood) give off two months. As girls’ camps don’t have the issue of staff leaving for Elul, they can run as usual and end the last week of August. Which leads us to the hard truth. Between bungalow colonies and child-care coverage, it isn’t feasible to have the boys’ schools starting a week earlier than the girls. It won’t work. The only way the boys’ schools can make changes is if the girls’ schools follow suit.
2. Parents who work for the Board of Education will not have their summer time off aligned with their children’s and may struggle to find coverage. (The issue of non- Jewish teachers unwilling to work before Labor Day has become less and less of an issue every year as by and large our general studies teachers are now frum teachers.)
3. New York State Regents in high schools are always at the end of June. (This is less of an issue now for boys than it used to be because most mesivtos don’t give off the first half to begin with. Some camps and yeshivahs who are already upstate by the end of June are making arrangements for the regents to be taken in the Catskills. If this mass schedule change were to be implemented, girls’ camps would need to find a similar solution.)

What would the best-case scenario look like?

If all boys and girls schools who give off ten weeks for the summer were to end around June 16th or so, and begin August 25th or 26th, I believe this would allow our children to have the most structured and productive summer. A sizable number of yeshivos, notably in Monsey and the Five Towns, have already made this change by announcing that they will end the school year earlier this year with the intent of beginning earlier next year. Others are hesitant to follow.

I have been in contact with dozens of menahelim who all have echoed the same sentiment. “We should do it. It makes all the sense in the world. But everyone else has to follow. The girls’ schools and the bungalow colonies have to be on board. What if they aren’t? We are nervous to make the move unilaterally.”

Change is hard. There will always be naysayers and reasons to take the easy road and stay status quo. But if we’re all intent on doing what’s best for our children for all 12 months of the year, the question has to be asked: “What is the best thing for our talmidim?”

The writer is a menahel in the Tristate area.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1084)