Up until the 2023-2024 school year, Dos Pueblos students have had a two-week winter break, however, this year the break has been extended to three weeks. This new change has prompted the question: will this be a positive change at DPHS?

With a longer winter break, there are a lot of components that come with it, such as its effect on certain classes, how this change will affect students in comparison to the two-week break. For some, it offers more time to celebrate.

“I personally celebrate Christmas on New Years, it’s like a Russian tradition,” Natalya Oroudjeva (11) said. “So with the two-week … break I would have to go to school right after New Years. I didn’t really get to have that after celebration of New Years but with the [three week break] it’s definitely a lot better.”

Having the additional week off gives students and teachers the opportunity to properly celebrate the different holidays and traditions of many cultures. The longer break also gives people more chances to enjoy their break while also offering time to catch up on work.

“It gives us like a week of just relaxing, a second week of just vacations, and maybe a third week of like preparing for upcoming finals that [are] gonna be in January,” Oroudjeva said.

Travis Bower, a teacher at DP, notes that it also gives students who have relatives in different countries more time to spend with them, especially when it is one of the only times they get to see each other during the year. Even if you don’t have family in other countries,the break gives you more time to enjoy your travels during vacation and still have time at home as well.

“Our family, we’re gonna travel to another country, and we’re gonna go to Mexico for a week and then we have two weeks here in Santa Barbara/Goleta,” Bower said.

However, the extra week brings more responsibilities for some students. Since they now have an additional week of time, it is more likely that students will forget what they learned before the break. Due to the extra week, students may need to work harder to keep up with their classes.

Unfortunately, the three week break also creates another issue for the school schedule. Students with AP classes in the spring will lose time to prepare for the AP test in May because of the extra week of winter break.

“We’ll have a week less for the set AP test in May, and we already have not much time because of the quarter system.” said AP Chemistry Teacher Alissa Mullin.

With all these factors, the three week break will have a positive effect on some students but will negatively affect others. It is likely that the break may be two weeks long next year, especially if they keep the school year schedule the same. If the district does not revert the break schedule, there are other solutions that could be implemented to accommodate students, such as pushing the year back a bit, so a new semester starts at the end of the break. These changes would require planning and more schedule changes in the future.