New York schoolchildren have a full week off before Christmas after a seventh-grader's petition: 'Your voice matters' garners thousands of signatures

New York City schoolchildren will get a full week off before Christmas break, following a petition started by a bright Brooklyn seventh-grader that has garnered tens of thousands of signatures.

Isaac Regnier, 12, had asked the Department of Education to cancel classes on Monday, Dec. 23, to avoid having public school students and teachers report to a one-day school week before the break, The Post previously reported.

On Wednesday, he got his wish — meeting with Mayor Eric Adams and newly minted schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos at the United Federation of Teachers headquarters to announce the schedule change.

“Isaac, he was able to get this victory and I think it will impact the entire school system and show young people that their voice matters and his parents should be extremely proud of him. That’s what leadership is all about,” Adams said.

Previously, due to calendar peculiarities, students had to stay in the city over the weekend in order to attend a school day before the school holidays began.

Regnier, a student at IS 96 in Bensonhurst, started the “Fix the NYC Schools Calendar” petition in May, calling on school administrators to cancel classes on Dec. 23 and make up for it by extending the school year by one day to Friday. June 27th.

The online petition attracted media attention and more than 22,000 signatures.

“I'm so proud of myself for all the hard work I did, despite the advocacy and those emails, even though (former chancellor) David Banks didn't write me back, I still made it a success.” Regnier told reporters Wednesday.

Adams said he wanted to work with the teachers union to make sure the request was possible.

“We wanted to make sure we got it done if possible. We wanted to communicate with the UFT. Was that possible? “I didn’t want to make false promises,” the mayor said.

In his petition, Regnier argued that attendance that day would be low because children whose families were traveling for the holidays would either have to accept an absence or be forced to change their plans.

He also made the astute point that “children and teachers will be upset.”

The same calendar anomaly occurred in 2019, according to Chalkbeat, when December 23 also fell on a Monday.

This year, teachers started a petition to change the school calendar and the school administration agreed.

State law says schools must operate 180 days a year or New York City schools could lose state funding.