any school teachers go to disney when school is in session?

[d1gitman]

 

[disneydad1]

i teach in ohio and my district's policy on personal days prohibits teachers from taking them for vacations. they must be used for business that can't be conducted after the school day. if you try to extend a holiday or if you try to use one on a weekend during May you have to give a reason. if you're caught lying about the reason, it can be grounds for termination.

i know other districts in ohio do not have such restrictions on their use of personal days.

 

[3smithboys]

No, I have not gone to WDW during any other time other than Winter Break. We are not allowed to take our Personal Days before or after school vacations or any days off to make an extra long weekend. We also have Special Needs Days, but they are to be used for very specific reasons and vacations are not a reason.

 

[disneydiva1313]

The teachers in my school district get 12 sick/personal days each year to use. So, I have used some of those days to travel to Disney World...but not very often. I usually go in the summer and during spring break. I am a very detailed person, so my lesson plans that I leave for a sub take way too much effort/time to do...so, I try not to miss school unless it's absolutely necessary.

 

[2princes'mom]

I am a first grade teacher and once every 3 years I take my 3 personal days up against the Labor Day weekend and we head to Disney. This gives us 6 days including the travel days (Sat - Thur). We can take our personal days together and we are not questioned as to what we are doing with them however we are NOT allowed to take ANY sick days up against a holiday weekend unless we have a doctors note.

I have a certain sub that I use and 2 very trusted back ups if she is not available. Because of the great relationship I have with the subs and the wonderful work they've done in the past, I am able to enjoy myself and not worry about "MY" kids while I am gone.

I head to Disney during Sept for a few reasons:

1. DH is NOT allowed under any circumstances to travel during the summer from his job.

2. Free Dining

and

3. Less people

 

[gatormom2tots]

I could only go for a weekend trip.

We get 2 personal days but they can not be used before or after a school holiday. So even if I had Friday off, I could not take Thursday or Monday off to extend the holiday.

So the longest I could go during the school year (minus Christmas) would be 4 days with 2 days having to be for travel.

 

[jpolak]

DW and i are both teachers and in the past have used our personal days to take a quick trip to WDW. Just for a long weekend, my district is very strict about taking personal days before or after a vacation.

 

[minniejack]

WV must be lax about taking vacations. My husbands cousin for the past 20 yrs always takes her vacations during the school year. The orchestra instructor takes a trip every fall to an NJ theme park. (along with being able to go to Cedar Point and Hershey with 2 different schools with each of their end of the year trips--and Disney every 4 yrs and NYC every 4--all completely free) And before you blast me about saying free that he works for that--you should see my post from June about his attitude about theft on the recent NYC. We chaperones pay for our trips and chaperone while he just gets a free trip. Every issue is not cut and dried.

 

[atrumpet16]

I am taking a week off of school to go to Disney in late October. Teachers in my district do it all the time and I've decided that I'm going to as well. I teach elementary music so it's easier for me as I will write one set of plans for the sub to teach that whole week I am gone. (different classes come each day so my lesson plans are done for a week at a time). I'm using personal days as, by law, our school system cannot request a reason for the use of personal days. However, I'm not going to advertise the fact that I am going to Disney for a week either

 

[#1hoosierfan]

I teach first grade in Indiana. I can take up to 3 personal days in a ro, but they cannot be taken in conjunction with any long weekends/holidays without permission from the superindentant. I plan to take 3 next year when I run either the F&W or or princess mini-marathon.

 

[Metsoskil]

I'm a teacher. We get 3 personal days per year which can be accumulated. We cannot take more than 5 personal days in a year, regardless of what we have saved. Personal days can be used for anything I want (including Disney).

DW and I have flown down for a long weekend in March before and I took a few personal days to do it. Next school year we plan to save days so that we can go down for a week after Thanksgiving in 2011 (we have the Monday after Thanksgiving off anyway, so it would only take 4 personal days.)

 

[d1gitman]

i'm not a teacher, but when we lived in SoCal last year the Capistrano School District had Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks set up different from anywhere else we lived.

Thanksgiving was the entire week off and Chrstmas break started with a full week, not just starting on Christmas eve and then running into the new year.

As a parent, this was awesome. I was told they do this because the school district gets paid based on attendance. Since a lot of families will take their kids out early for Thanksgiving & Christmas breaks, they made the schedule so that there was no school those days. That way the school doesn't get penalized for absentees.

It was win-win to us.

 

[Ryansdad0727]

I get 5 state days and only 2 local days. I'm getting the shaft. It's tough to build up days when i get so few local days. I don't have any problems using my days to go to WDW. I would try to go on a 3 day weekend. It would really depend on the grades that my kids are making as to whether or not we would take them out of school.If my personal kids have all A's i would not hesitate to take them out for vacation, they are working hard and will maintain that grade. If they are struggling i would not take them out.

 

[Tink-aholic]

I get 5 state days and only 2 local days. I'm getting the shaft. It's tough to build up days when i get so few local days. I don't have any problems using my days to go to WDW. I would try to go on a 3 day weekend. It would really depend on the grades that my kids are making as to whether or not we would take them out of school.If my personal kids have all A's i would not hesitate to take them out for vacation, they are working hard and will maintain that grade. If they are struggling i would not take them out.

What is the difference between a state day and a local day? Does this mean your sick time and personal days, or are these all personal days?

I know my district is generous with 18 total...but if you have 7 personal days a year, I wouldn't call that getting the "shaft". Good for you!

 

[Schmeck]

When I was hired 9 years ago, I told the director that interviewed and hired me that I had a Disney family reunion already planned, and she said it wasn't a problem to miss that week, but I wouldn't get paid, just had to apply for an unpaid leave of absence.

Then 9/11 happened, and no one in my family wanted to fly, so we postponed the reunion for a year. I had been given the OK from the director, but the principal of the school I worked at slammed me in my annual review for missing that week.

Our school district would not allow anyone to use a personal day for a vacation - it's spelled out in our contract exactly what they can be used for, and you could get fired for using a personal day inappropriately.

 

[snowy76]

I don't take days during the school year. If we're planning a family trip, we only go during the summer, since our winter and spring break weeks are usually peak times at Disney (thus more $$$). I'd rather save money and sweat more

That being said, in the last few years our district has given the kids an odd four-day weekend around Columbus Day (Saturday through Tuesday instead of Friday to Monday). We work Tuesday as a professional development day. I've been able to leave town late Friday, spend a quick weekend in WDW for F&W festival, come back late Monday night, and be at work for PD on Tuesday. Lots of coffee in hand.

It has been great because I don't even have to consider using a day, and the PD day allows me a day from the kids, sort of to catch my breath before I'm "on" for them again Wednesday. Plus I'm always energized from a WDW trip, and on Wednesday the kids always ask why I'm in such a good mood.

 

[southern_redhead]

I'm not a teacher myself but I work in the office at our local elementary school. I've used a few of my personal/sick days to take vacations. Not using them for all the days, but last year I took the Monday and Tues of our Thanksgiving break so that we could spend 8 days in Chicago over Thanksgiving. We get a Fall Break in October and I may take the Thurs and Fri of that week this year so I have the full week off. I have 3 kids and a stepson in school in the district and we pull them out as well. Short weeks our teachers don't do much but parties/movies/crafts anyway so we rarely have makeup work.

Some of my friends who teach at the school use their personal/sick days the same. One of them took 5 of them last year the week before Christmas break to go to Disney!! A few of us were jealous but no one (including the principal or School Board) denied she had the right to use her days as she wished. For me, I get 11 checks a year, if I go over my 10 days of "allotted" time off (and who doesn't with kids?!) I can either make up the time by coming in early or on inservice days OR I can opt to have the pay for those days deducted from my last (June) check. I've done both ways and never had a problem. Our school system is very good to us though, they know our school can be a pressure cooker for the employees and they understand our need to get away for a few days

 

[southern_redhead]

When I was hired 9 years ago, I told the director that interviewed and hired me that I had a Disney family reunion already planned, and she said it wasn't a problem to miss that week, but I wouldn't get paid, just had to apply for an unpaid leave of absence.

Then 9/11 happened, and no one in my family wanted to fly, so we postponed the reunion for a year. I had been given the OK from the director, but the principal of the school I worked at slammed me in my annual review for missing that week.

Our school district would not allow anyone to use a personal day for a vacation - it's spelled out in our contract exactly what they can be used for, and you could get fired for using a personal day inappropriately.

You can't use personal days for vacations? What are they used for then? Basically in our system the only difference between personal and sick is that for a personal day you have to request it at least 24 hrs before using it (and it could be turned down, thus forcing you to use a sick day, but I've never heard of that happening) They really don't care if we use a sick day to travel or a personal day for vacation or whatever as long as we understand that anything over 10 days we "owe" them for on our last check. With teachers that means deducting the days from their pay. As an assistant I have it better and can make my time up OR let them take the day from my check. Makes me glad I work for the system I'm in

 

[Malela9]

I teach at a private school and wish I could take a week to go to Disney during the year! We have students take "weeks" to travel over seas to visit family and it makes me crazy! I would love to go to Disney for one week when it is uncrowded and not boiling hot!
I could just imagine what the parents would say to me! " What do they say to all of you that do leave?" I am jealous! We get one personal day a year and sick days are for being sick. Ugh!

 

[michael's mom]

Does anyone who works in a school district manage not to go during school vacations? I Have a friend who says he knows someone who works in a school who is going in October and we live in Massachusetts so the only time off is Colombia day. Is that possible? Has anyone done it and would you get in trouble at work for using some sick days to go aweek at disney? I work in the special education department in a school and its hard to deal with the crowds during vacations (especially looking at our April vacation next year)

MA schoolteacher here as well and I am not allowed to use my personal days to extend long weekends or school vacations. Our Columbus Day weekend is only the 3 days, we don't get any extra there. There have been occasions where our system has given a teacher a week off during school but it is usually special circumstances, and not just because we feel like vacationing then. For me, DH and I got married at the end of October and we took our honeymoon to Disney the first week in Nov. But, I had to use all of my personal days and take days w/o pay.

Yes, it's true that this April vacation, Disney will be nuts. And we're going anyway. My sister is getting married in Disney and obviously, wants me to be able to go. I told her we'd fly down any weekend she got married but she knew we couldn't stay and vacation with the family if it were at a different time, so, we're sucking it up...cost and crowds in all! But, when Easter does not fall the same time as our April vacation, it really isn't very busy at all. I've been going for a long time and I can tell you, the last few times we've gone in April, lines have been short. The longest line I stood in last year was 20 mins, and that was one of the rides we usually fast pass. My understanding is that only MA and parts of CT and RI vacation around Patriots day and all the other east coast states vacation around Easter.

Where does your friend's friend work? I know when we were there for our HM, there were TONS of people from Jersey there. I have found out in the recent years that Jersey week is end of Oct. or early Nov.


The other option that A LOT of my teacher friends do is go at the end of August when the southern states are back at school. I haven't done this yet because we like traveling with the whole family and nobody else will bear the heat. But my friend swears by this time...it may be hot, but the crowds aren't too bad and they usually offer free dining
Good luck!