Schools were closed across District 220 on Monday, Feb. 15, due to Presidents’ Day, a federal holiday honoring George Washington’s birthday since 1879. Because of a school institute day the previous Friday, Feb. 13, which is planned to always be the same weekend as President’s Day, students had a four-day weekend. This year, however, due to the recent school-wide assembly, students had a half-day on Thursday, Feb. 12, further extending the long weekend. Junior Stephanie Yoon appreciated the longer weekend the district created by adding an institute day on Friday.

“I do like the fact that they make it into a four-day weekend because I feel like the second semester can be very stressful, so it’s nice to get a break like this. But at the same time, I feel like it’s too short to the point where I treat it as a full week-long break, and then it gets cut short,” Yoon said.

Yoon decided to take the long weekend as an opportunity to travel, something many students did.

“Over the weekend, my friends and I went to California, and it was really warm. It was nice that we got this long weekend, because otherwise there wouldn’t have been a time that I would’ve been able to go,” Yoon said.

But students didn’t necessarily need to go to California to feel that warmth. Over the weekend, temperatures got to 50-60 degrees Fahrenheit, something the community hasn’t seen for months. Some students, like senior Annika Inamdar, enjoyed the weather here during their break.

“The weather was so great over the weekend. It was nice, and then I woke up and wondered where that went. I was happy it was warm, but it also made me worried about what it means for climate change, because February usually isn’t this warm,” Inamdar said.

This weekend was the longest break until Spring Break, which is just over a month away for students, starting the week of March 22.