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

[Jenfrog79]

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)

 

[emtmom]

We're in MA too, and though I am not a teacher, we often plan our trips around holiday weekends, esp Columbus Day as point rates are lower for us. In our school district, Columbus day weekend is often a 4 day weekend so we leave on Thursday and return on Tuesday or Wednesday, and she only misses a couple of days. I assume that teachers would be able to use personal days, but I don't know if there are rules that go along with them.

 

[anjalee6]

I am a teacher in MD. I find it extremely hard to take off during the year unless there is a scheduled break already so we don't do it, but my second year of teaching, I got married in November and we took our honeymoon to Disney so we did take the week off. It was really nice and not crowded at all (2 weeks before Thanksgiving). Other than that, I don't think we could find time to go during the school year and it would be frowned upon if we just decided to up and go. Maybe over a long weekend?

 

[PrincesCJM]

I'm going to use 2 of my 3 personal days next year for a trip to Disney. DH and I are going down for April vacation but we are leaving on Wednesday night - allowing me to work that day.

I have seen/heard reports on here of teachers taking a week off from school to take a Disney vacation. It's not something that I could do to my students, nor would it ever be approved by the principal/superintendent. There aren't many subs who are comfortable in a high school math class (with the material, not the students). It's also so much work to create meaningful lesson plans, even when missing one day. During the two days that I'm going to miss, I can almost guarantee that one day will be review and the second will be test/quiz day.

ETA: In my district, for any personal day on Monday or Friday, I have to pay for my sub. It is possible to apply for a waiver. I have no problem paying the $70ish for my sub for that Friday.

I believe that we get 15 sick days and 3 personal days each year. The personal days are "Use 'em or lose 'em". I believe that unused sick days roll over.

 

[kerri0616]

My district does not have any type of Fall Break or consecutive in-service days off.

The only thing I've managed is to use 2 perfect attendance days and take off the Monday and Tuesday before Thanksgiving which gives me the whole week off. By doing this, we've taken 2 short cruises on DCL.

But now I have a high schooler, and I don't feel right about having him miss 2 days.

So...it's summer break (hot), spring break (big crowds), or Xmas break (enormous crowds).

Still, I'd rather be there than here!!!

K

 

[denecarter]

I'm a teacher in Texas. Each year, the state "gives" me 5 personal days and the district "gives" me 5 sick/personal days. If I don't use them, they can build up. If I change districts, I lose my local days, but my state days go with me. I'm rarely sick, so I have built up a LOT of days (also lost a lot changing districts twice in the last 13 years).

Where I work, you can take personal days just about any time with a few limitations... not the day before/after holidays unless the superintendent approves (he did for my week before the Christmas holidays when I had surgery 3 years ago), not the first or last days of grading periods (6 weeks for us), and not over 5 straight days unless approved by the superintendent. Requests for personal days need to be made at least 3 (or is it 5) days in advance and it is better to get them in early... if too many people want off at the same time, your request could be denied.

In the last 4 years, aside from the week I took for post-op recovery, I've taken 3 days three times to go to a girls' spa weekend in New Mexico, 3 days to go to the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, and a week to go snow-skiing in New Mexico.

Sooooo, as long as I have the time built up and the request falls within the district's rules, I could go to Disney during the school year if I wanted.

 

[J3nn78]

I have gone during the school year and used my personal days and my comp days. I have taken 3 at a time, in combination with a weekend and had 5-7 full days as a result.

 

[tarheel_girl]

I'm a teacher in NC. I can and do take Disney vacations during the school year. This January I was out of school for a week. Like the previous poster, I am given 2 personal days a year. I am also given 10 sick days a year. I am NOT allowed to use sick days for vacations. However, I can use my personal days. I allow them to build up so that I can take a nice vacation during the off season with my DD3. I adopted her from Vietnam in January of 07 so we go down to Disney to celebrate. This coming year, we will only be able to go for a long weekend since I used most of my personal days this year. The students will be out of school on a Thursday and a Friday. I MUST work on Thursday (mandated workday). I will fly out on Thursday afternoon/evening. I will spend Friday-Sunday in the parks. We will fly back on Monday so I will only be using one personal day. My state has a rule that as long as we request personal days at least five days in advance, they must be approved. My principal already knows about this trip coming up so it won't be a problem.

 

[princessmom29]

I have gone over thanksgiving week the last 2 years. We are only out wed-fri, but I use my 2 personal days. The system cannot ask for a reason other than "personal" for thier use. We are going mardi gras week 2011, and doing the same thing. We are off mon-wed and I am using personal days thur-fri. I don't think I could get away with taking a whole week at a time, and it would be very difficult to find a sub capable of actually teaching upper level science courses for that long. a day or 2 off is ok because I can leave enough independent work but no more than that.

 

[ilandrazdsw]

I'm a special education teacher in Indiana. My program is a little unique being a post secondary Transition to Adulthood Program with 7 assistants for an avg of 15 students , so I could take a week if need be. Several of my assistants are sub certified, so it wouldn't be a new sub coming in trying to follow lesson plans. Our program has a pretty set schedule of vocation, community, daily living, and social skills...no real "by-the-book" curriculum. One of the assistants would step in for me and she would get a sub. Fortunately we have about 4 substitute assistants that can step in to our routine without blinking or upsetting the students. I doubt the co-op would approve Disney for personal leave, but calling in daily could be an option. (One of my assistants took 3 extra days of the fall break off for a cruise and her daughter would just call in every day to the sub line as her.)
Personally, I don't know that I could take the time from my class. or could I? Professionally, DH who is the program bus driver for the vocation worksites and an assistant couldn't leave without REALLY affecting the class being that he is the only one with a CDL to drive the bus. As much as I love Disney I just couldn't go without him. Plus we have a kindergartener and 2nd grader that would also miss school.
So we are limited to Christmas, Spring, or Summer breaks...and we leave in 13 days!!!
Good luck with your decision!

 

[DCbride]

Every state/district is different, you would have to find out what your board of education policy states. I have taken a Fri and Mon off using personal and flew down on Thursday night and home on Monday. I wouldn't do it with kids, but just adults was fun.

I have never taken more than 2 days off for a vacation, but it is usually added to a long weekend.

 

[Sandisw]

In our district, we are not allowed to use our 3 yearly personal days for recreation so the only opportunity teachers would have to take time off during the school year is to submit a letter to the Board of Education and ask for the days without pay.

In most cases, these are approved. But, if they see a history of someone asking for it on a regular basis, it could be a problem.

I went on a long weekend a few years ago with my family as a grand gathering and ended up taking 2 days, Friday and Monday, without pay.

I got lucky, though, as we had a major snowstorm on the Monday, the school ended up calling a snow day, and I only got docked the one day!!!

Some of us wish that they would relax the reasons for personal days but so far, no luck, so I am resolved to going in the summer.

 

[j&j620]

I'm a newer teacher, so the "personal" days I am allotted usually end up being used as sick days. Gotta love the germs the kids like to share! Wasn't as bad this year, though, so maybe my immune system is beefing up!

Just so you know, this topic tends to get VERY heated. Just take what people say with a grain of salt and do what works best for YOUR situation.

 

[Pixiedust34]

My dh is a teacher and never takes off work for a WDW vacation.

I *hate* heat and he *hates* (I can't emphasize that enough) crowds, but the only time we all vacation to WDW is during the summer.

Every-other-year the kids and I will do an off-season trip by ourselves, but when dh goes to WDW it's always during the summer when it's crowded. It's far from an ideal time to travel to WDW, but that's the way it is when your vacation is from mid-June to mid-August and you can't take off time from work to travel.

 

[Brian Noble]

I'm at a university, not K-12, but I only miss lecture days for business reasons (conferences, board meetings, etc.) I could probably get by just having one of my grad students cover for me, but it would feel wrong.

So, I'm a breaks-only kind of guy. Worse, my breaks don't always line up with the kids', and that does tend to limit family vacation time to summers. Christmas and Thanksgiving are the only other two options and those are both already too busy with family commitments. But, we went last July, and are going again in another nine days (NINE DAYS!). So, it's not so bad.

 

[MYD714]

DH and I are both teachers and we are allotted personal days each year. I've only used 1 personal day in all the years I've been teaching, and that was to move.

I think my district is pretty strict about using them and I hate being out of the classroom, so we just vacation in August. Although, this thread has me tempted to try going in October or November.

 

[Disney Spaz]

I am a teacher and luckily because of the specialized program I run I can take a week off in Jan during exams becuase my program does not do exams. This is typically when we try to go to WDW. However, due to DVC holding points we scheduled a trip for the week after Halloween. There are two days off due to elections and at home grading, (my grading is always done the friday prior cause I am anal) so the monday and tuesday of our vacation are already non work days. We have recently changed administrators so we shall see how he feels about my time off when school starts again but up to this point it has never been an issue for my boss.

 

[Tink-aholic]

I'm a teacher in Mass, too. I get 15 sick days a year and 3 personal days (all roll over to sick at the end of the year). If I use more than a few sick days in a row, I'm pretty sure I'd have to bring a note (especially if I came back with a sunburn or new Disney stuff!). I can take all of my personal days in a row if I have a REALLY good reason and get permission from the Superintendent himself (the last two years I have used them to go to Destination Imagination Global Finals in TN).

To make matters worse, We live in New Hampshire...and their breaks are always different from ours. I used to justify taking DS out of school for a week, but he's in high school now. I don't want him to miss too much time, so we are resigned to summer or Christmas only.

Oh well, better than never going at all!

 

[KristinAnne]

I am a teacher in MA also, and get 3 personal and 15 sick days a year. This past year I used two personal days on a Monday and Tuesday to go to Disney in December. We left on Friday night and came home on Tuesday. Down the road, I would like to do the same thing in October for the Food and Wine Festival.
I wouldn't take more than that though. It doesn't feel right. We get enough vacation as it is. I can deal with the crowds and/or heat.

 

[terbethk]

I'm not a teacher, but my friend (who is a special ed teacher) went with me last year, in October (we went from oct 29-nov 2), I believe she had a four day weekend, then took a personal day that monday (or tuesday?) so we were able to make a 5 day trip.