By: Serach Nissim

A 12-year-old student at New York City’s public school system is leading an effort demanding the city Department of Education drop a scheduling plan for the upcoming school year, which will requires students to come in for a one-day school week before the Christmas holiday break.

Isaac Regnier, a seventh-grader at IS 96 in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn began an online petition drive two weeks ago. The petition already got over 7,180 signatures, as of Monday afternoon. The petition calls on school Chancellor David Banks to “Fix the NYC Schools Calendar.” The change.org charge says, “This doesn’t make sense. Attendance will be very low that day. Kids whose families have travel plans will have to change their plans or be marked absent.”

The student adds, “I know that if Chancellor David Banks drops a school day, he has to add one somewhere else. My suggestion is to move the last day of school from Thursday, June 26 to Friday, June 27.” The plea concludes with the line: “I know it’s not an easy job with so many holidays on the school calendar. (I have them memorized.) But I hope it’s not too late to avoid a silly one-day week.”

As reported by the NY Post, Regneir was interviewed from his Bay Ridge home. He told the Post that he’s always been interested in calendars — and was floored when he noticed that the DOE scheduled the one-day school week on Tuesday Dec. 23. He predicted that attendance will be very low that day, as many families may opt to travel earlier on Friday Dec 20, and students that do come in won’t learn much due to low attendance.

The clever pre-teen said he decided to take matters into his own hands and initially tried appealing directly to Banks as well as Mayor Eric Adams. “I emailed Mayor Adams [in April] but he did not write back,” said the student. “Then I tried calling him, but he wouldn’t respond.” The same goes for his efforts to contact Banks.

“The funny part is [my husband and I] weren’t even home when he called the mayor,” said Isaac’s mother, Amanda Regnier. “Our babysitter was around, but Isaac googled the number and called on his own. We couldn’t believe it.” The boy wouldn’t be deterred and got his dad and10-year-old sister, Susanna, to help start the online petition. He also understood that DOE must adhere to the 180 days of schooling under New York law or risk losing state funding, so he offered advice to delay the last day of school for one day. “We are very proud that he has put his argument out there, and we hope it succeeds,” said dad Michael Regnier.

Isaac says he’s garnered plenty of support including from teachers— even in other schools. Carl Abend, a Bronx high school teacher, said he plans to sign the petition and hopes the DOE will amend the calendar. He said keeping schools open Dec. 23 “will be major mess” because many teachers will just use banked vacation days to take off.

Councilman Justin Brannan (D-Brooklyn), a former DOE director of intergovernmental affairs who represents Bay Ridge, also chimed in, saying he hopes the DOE listens to the young constituent. “Common sense would say add another day at the end of June and give the kids the 23rd off,” said Brannan.