Students in Methuen will have an extra two days tacked onto their winter break this year, but there's a catch: they have to make up the time in June.
School officials hope the longer vacation will help them save money, because they can lower the heat and reduce electricity consumption while students are home enjoying their Christmas gifts.
"How that plays out dollars wise, we don't know right now, but we're pretty confident there will be a savings," School Committee Vice Chairman Gary Marcoux said.
This year's academic calendar originally called for students to return to class on the Monday after Christmas — Dec. 29. The students were to go to school that Monday and Tuesday, and then begin another recess on Wednesday — New Year's Eve — returning the following Monday — Jan. 5.
But Marcoux received 15 to 20 phone calls from staff and parents, asking that officials keep the students on vacation on Dec. 29 and 30, and the School Committee and teachers union supported the idea, so the calendar was changed.
Students will now have winter break from Monday, Dec. 22 through Friday, Jan. 2. They begin their summer vacation on Friday, June 26 if they have five snow days this winter. If they have fewer snow days, they will get out sooner.
Haverhill schools are taking the same approach as Methuen. Students there will have a two-week winter vacation. Both Christmas and New Year's Day fall on Thursdays, so the School Department decided to shut down school for the entire week that each holiday falls on, said Beverly Cassano, executive assistant to Superintendent Raleigh Buchanan.
"If the buildings are shut down, we can save (money) in the middle of winter — two whole weeks," Cassano said.
Haverhill students will remain in school until June 23 if they have five snow days, and will get out sooner if there are fewer, Cassano said.
The Energy Information Administration, a statistical division of the U.S. Department of Energy, projected last month that natural gas and heating oil will be at record highs this winter.
School officials in charge of huge buildings around the region are already bracing for that.
"It's going to be a tough year," Marcoux said.
Officials in Andover do not have plans to tweak the winter break — students there get out of school on Tuesday, Dec. 23 and return on Monday, Jan. 5. But workers are doing other things to save money.
"We're going to delay as long as we can firing up the boilers this year," Superintendent Claudia Bach said.
Andover officials only allow after-school programs in five of their 10 schools to save energy. They are also using more efficient lights in classrooms, Bach said.
"We're going to pay more than we did last year, but we're trying to do what we can to make that impact less," she said.
Officials at Pinkerton Academy in Derry, N.H. will be asking students to bundle up.
"We're turning the heat back a few degrees," Headmaster Mary Anderson said.
Classroom temperatures will be set at 65 degrees. Normal room temperature is 68 degrees.
North Andover school staff members are working on coming up with ways to save energy this winter, Superintendent James Marini said.
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Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.
