It's February break in Massachusetts, but in Newton, class is still in session this week.
"It's OK because they wanted what they wanted and I'm glad that school's back on," said Parker Sherwin, Horace Mann fourth grader.
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Newton school officials decided to cancel February vacation to make up time from last month's teacher strike, throwing a wrench in a lot of people's travel plans.
More than 31% of students in the city were absent Tuesday — 3,659 out of 11,665 were out of class.
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"We have engagements that we needed to go to, and it kind of like messed up everything," said Chantae Charles, mother of a Horace Mann student.
All told, students missed 11 school days while teachers spent 15 days on the picket line before the union and the city finally came to an agreement.
"Teachers are the backbone of the public education system and all education susyems and they were being underpaid, understaffed and just really not treated fairly and so I was in full support of the teachers," said Jena Castrocasbon, mother of two Horace Mann students.
The school committee decided that students who miss class this week will not be penalized, but teachers and staff are required to be in school unless they are sick or have an exceptional circumstance.
The district is also putting parents on notice that there could be delays this week, since many of the regular school bus drivers had the week off and their substitutes might be unfamiliar with the routes.
They're now facing legal troubles, including a class action lawsuit alleging that the lives of 12,000 students and their parents were thrown into quote "chaos" as a result of the strike.
"We were planning to be in Florida right now and with this bitter cold, I def miss that whole concept, but it worked out. Our Airbnb folks down there were very nice, they let us exchange it for April," said Suriya Jeyapalan, mother of two Newton public school students.
The district is bracing for a lot of absences since many families booked non-refundable trips for this week.
