As spring break sneaks up on us, students are counting down the days until a rewarding week off from school.

The past three months have consisted of long school days and minimal time off from school. Students and staff are ready for a break, and they have been ready for a long time.

At the Board of Education meeting on February 23, board members discussed decoupling spring break from Easter meaning spring break would be separate from Easter.

Currently, the week of spring break changes each year to align with Easter- the week prior, or the week after. However, as the date of this holiday varies from year to year, there is a lot of inconsistency with our spring break schedule.

Last year, Easter fell on April 4th, while this year, it falls on the 17th. Thus, our spring break is shifted a significant amount. Considering winter break remains the same week every year because the date of Christmas never changes, why wouldn’t we instill a fixed week for spring break?

This year, students and teachers have had 62 school days between Christmas and Easter break. That is 14 consecutive weeks with merely three days off- one in January, February, and March. Additionally, this year, we have only had a single snow day. This is extremely difficult for students and staff because there is no time to relax, destress, and prepare for tasking weeks.

The time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is significantly shorter- 19 school days. While four weeks is manageable for BHS, the span between Christmas and spring break is not.

This span is an extremely busy time of year for students and staff. Between the NJGPA for juniors, the PSAT’s, SATs, and ACTs, along with a difficult workload in classes, winter and spring sports, the spring musical, and many other activities, the time from December to April is nonstop.

Thus, shifting spring break earlier would break up this busy time, and ultimately make it more bearable for students and staff.

The Board of Education discussed possibly instilling spring break towards the end of March- the second to last, or last week. If we compare this week to 2022, spring break would be two to three weeks earlier. This would have been much more tolerable for students as there would not have been such a large gap of time between December and April.

Yes, pushing spring break earlier would mean a longer span of time from after break until the end of the school year. However, we would have a long weekend for Easter and memorial day to break up this span. Additionally, students and staff can look forward to the end of the school year, and the last week of school, although we have finals, consists of only half days.

Ms. Butler, responsible for composing the SHSD calendar, recognizes that “the development of each year’s calendar represents a new challenge due to when days fall within the calendar.” If we instilled a fixed spring break, this would take away the challenge of coinciding spring break with Easter and working other days off around this.

Ms. Butler also mentions that “there are several holidays that the calendar generally observes.” One of these holidays is Good Friday. Usually Good Friday falls within spring break, but if the break was decoupled, our district can solve this problem by implementing a long weekend for Easter. This would include a day off for Good Friday, leading up to the weekend off for Easter. In this way, we would get the best of both worlds- a week off for spring break, and a long weekend for Easter.

Currently, we have three snow days built into our calendar around Memorial Day weekend. If we were to use these snow days, we would not receive added days off around memorial day, but if we did not have any snow days, our weekend would be extended.

This same concept can be applied to Easter. Building these snow days around Easter would allow for the chance of an extended Easter break.

Overall, Ms. Butler states that “anything is possible when crafting a calendar, but the bottom line is we need to provide 180 days of instruction for our students.” Decoupling spring break is definitely something to consider, and would ultimately benefit students and staff.