A group of Soldotna Elementary School sixth graders participated in a mock Kenai Peninsula Borough assembly meeting Wednesday, where they debated a faux ordinance that proposed extending Thanksgiving break. The field trip was meant to teach students about how their local government works.
Sitting in the borough assembly chambers, Elizabeth Terry’s sixth grade students listened attentively to their classmate, Jimmy Mayfield, explain why he supports Ordinance 2021-01.
“Sometimes when people get hot lunches at school, it costs some money to get the hot lunches,” he said. “So when we get a five day week off, that can save a lot of money for getting hot lunches. And also, since we have five days, that's a lot more time to travel and hang out with people and families.”
Jimmy has taken on the rol
e of a borough assembly member. He’s arguing in favor of a proposal to make Thanksgiving Break longer for the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District. The Soldotna Elementary School sixth grader is in a mock borough assembly meeting as part of a field trip. It’s a chance for students to learn about local government and practice persuasive speech.
The borough’s actual mayor, Peter Micciche, plays assembly president during the meeting. Guiding students through the procedures of the meeting, he explained the purpose of each step. Like during a real meeting, the sixth grade assembly takes public comment on the issue – from their classmates.
Those who favored a longer break said it would accommodate out-of-state travel, provide students with more time to rest and reduce truancy offenses. Those opposed said it would disrupt students’ learning process and sleep schedules, result in higher parent spending on childcare and pressure already-stressed students to learn more material in a shorter amount of time.
Cora Thomas said a longer break would make it easier for students to travel out of state.
“It takes about 6.5 hours just to reach Seattle,” she said. “This plus many more hours of traveling can lead to many, many hours or days of missed school. Giving families this extra week will give them the time they need to travel without missing too much school.”
Simeon Paxman said he’d be productive with the extra time off.
“I snare rabbits, and if Thanksgiving break was extended to a week that would give me more time to check my snares and tan my hides,” he said.
But others disagreed. James Pearce says a long break would make it harder for students to return to school and financially burden families.
“Some daycares might be closed,” he said. “So it could be hard finding one that's open during Thanksgiving week. Leaving parents’ only one option is to not go to work. And that could result in problems with parents' jobs.”
And Ellie Ritter says it doesn’t make sense for students to get a longer Thanksgiving break so close to winter break.
“Without our 32 hours and 25 minutes of learning, it can cause us to lose focus and make it difficult,” she said. “Though breaks can be nice, it is not helping our learning unless we are doing schoolwork over breaks, which most students will not do.”
The student assembly members were equally split, narrowly voting in favor of an extended break.
Elizabeth Terry is the class’ teacher. She says her students were nervous about the field trip.
“They had three topics that they wanted to discuss with you today, and decided by vote on the one that they did bring to the floor, and then researched on their own,” she said. “They asked me very few questions.”
Micciche applauded the students for their preparation. He said he tried to pass a bill expanding civics education for Alaska students when he was still serving in the Alaska Legislature.
“I think it's incredibly important, and you all have impressed me today,” he said.
Multiple students agreed the meeting went well. Here’s Ellie, one of the opponents of the ordinance.
“Everybody made amazing points,” she said. “And I think either way, if we won or lost, it was still a great experience.”
Before adjourning the meeting, students – like members of the public – had one more opportunity to address Micciche and the student assembly. Cora, who previously spoke in favor of the longer break, used the opportunity to plug one of her other priorities – student lockers at Soldotna Elementary. Micciche says that topic will have to be held for a future meeting.
