With spring break just around the corner, and warmer weather upon us, the same, yearly school calendar question arrives: Why does Easter fall on spring break? And will there ever be a change?

When making the school calendar, there are many considerations that go into creating the schedule. The State of New Jersey requires students to attend 180 days of school, with the collective bargaining agreement between the Board of Education and the Somerset Hills Education Association states that teachers must be present for 184 days each year as they have four professional development days in addition to the 180 days with students.

The Board of Education creates three emergency snow days as well, which are given back to the students if not used.

When asking Dr. Butler, creator of the school year calendar, about the considerations that go into the placement of the holiday breaks and days off for students, she said that “there are several holidays that the calendar generally observes: Labor Day, Yom Kippur, Rosh Hashanah, two days for the Teachers’ Convention, two days for Thanksgiving, a winter break including Christmas and New Years Day, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Presidents’ Day, Good Friday, spring break, and Memorial Day. The development of each year’s calendar represents a new challenge due to when days fall within the calendar. I generally present the BOE several drafts of possible calendars based upon these parameters and feedback.”

Due to the change in date of Easter every year, the school calendar and spring break must revolve around the holiday. Despite the yearly movement of Easter, Dr. Butler says that “the bottom line is [we] need to provide 180 days of instruction for our students,” or days will be added to the school year later in June.

Regardless of wanting to move spring break and detaching it from Easter, the week off from school is inclusive of Good Friday (which the school consistently has off for), creating a week long break for the administration and students. Dr. Butler says that “an example might be if the Board feels that students and staff need a break earlier in the calendar.”

When asking Dr. Butler if we were to separate Easter from Spring Break, and how that would potentially affect the rest of the school calendar, she said that “each calendar presents new challenges. If the spring break did not include Good Friday and we wanted to have Good Friday off as well, we would make up for that day somewhere else in the calendar.”

Shifting back to how the school calendar is created and finalized, Good Friday is vital to the creation of the spring break schedule. Despite students wanting to separate Easter from the week of spring break, students have expressed why they wouldn’t want to add on school days later in June.

Dane Costabile ‘22 says that “[I’d] rather keep the spring break the way it is because I don’t want it to impact the schedule in June. I wouldn’t want to get out of school any later in June because that would take away days in the summer, and push back senior events like graduation.”

With a change coming to the school start date in the fall (Somerset Hills School District now starting prior to Labor Day), moving Easter away from spring break could also stretch out the school year. Summer vacation would be shortened by spreading out the week of spring break – affecting the calendar in June.

Sydney Kaul ‘23 adds that “having the school year start after labor day already pushes the end date far into June. By decoupling spring break and Easter break, our last day of school would be even further into June. Our summer break would be cut even shorter than it already is, so I would much rather have a longer summer break and keep spring break the way it is.”

If one thing is certain, it’s that students at Bernards High School don’t want summer break to begin any later in June – especially with the 2022-2023 school year starting before Labor Day next year.

A schedule change to Easter would also have to be agreed upon by Bedminster School. Dr. Butler says that the school has to align spring break with Bedminster because “[Bedminster School] is our sending district. We share students and we are all part of one community so while both districts create their own calendars we do so in consultation with one another, taking all opinions into consideration.”

The possibility of separating Easter from spring break isn’t to be ruled out of the picture, but a change now with the next school year beginning before Labor Day and having to move around snow days to create an “Easter weekend” is very unlikely.

When asking the question of there being any chance we could see a future change to the Somerset Hills School District spring break schedule, Dr. Butler says “anything is possible when crafting a calendar, but the bottom line is we need to provide 180 days of instruction for our students.”