On December 31, 2021, the Fremont Unified School District Board of Education voted to remove all breaks from the school calendar, including weekends, allegedly due to budget cuts. Effective January 1st, 2022, FUSD began requiring students to attend school throughout the week, exhausting and demoralizing them in practice.

At the district board meeting/New Year’s Eve party hybrid, FUSD superintendent J.C. Kcammac suggested flipping a coin to decide on a new change to implement for the remainder of the 2021-2022 school year.

“I thought it would be a really good idea to make a really bad decision to start the new year,” described superintendent J.C. Kcammac. “It’s an FUSD tradition, which I am happy to be a part of. It was either heads, get rid of all breaks, or tails, mandate fursuits for teachers.”

The board did not bother to approve any actions, and let the coin decide what action to take. Apparently, heads won. 

“Darn, I really hoped the coin would land on tails,” remarked Fremont Board of Education member Clawset Furie. 

For Irvington students like Ah Mimir (12), the changes to the school calendar have been difficult to adapt to. 

“Ever since FUSD’s last-minute policy to keep school open every day, I’ve been getting 2 hours of sleep max every night,” described Mimir. “I mean, I would get 2 hours of sleep even before this, but my point still stands.” 

Despite ruining students’ lives, the Fremont Board of Education remains firm in their decision. 

“We recognize that FUSD students and staff will be unhappy with this new change, but honestly, we don’t really care what they think,” said Fremont Board of Education President Sen Bhapiro.

Without breaks, Irvington students find little time to share with their family, relax, or develop interests outside of academics.

“Honestly, I just want to spend some time with my family,” said Alla Lown (10). “I haven’t seen my mother in weeks because she works in the evenings. Come to think of it, I haven’t seen anyone I live with lately. Where did they all go?”

Superintendent Kcammac suggested the school board went through with the decision because of budget cuts. However, he says, the board historically attributed many decisions to budget cuts.

“Fewer buses? Budget cuts. Dropping music classes? Budget cuts. Getting rid of elementary school field trips? Budget cuts. Not paying teachers enough?” asks Kcammac. “You guessed it—budget cuts. We kept funding for cops, though.”

FUSD expresses no intention to reverse the no-day-off policy, trapping FUSD students and staff in an endless cycle of misery.