Should we keep spring break coupled up with Easter weekend? This question is becoming extremely relevant as spring break approaches. This year, in between spring break and Memorial Day weekend, the Somerset Hills School District had seven weeks of school with no days off. This begs the question of whether or not the school district should decouple spring break.
The decoupling of spring break could provide many benefits for both the students and teachers. Not only would students get a break after such a long period of time without any days off, but considering many other districts have their spring break decoupled from Easter, teachers who live in other districts and have kids would be able to spend their spring break with them. It would also open up opportunities for travel.
However, each year when the BOE makes the school calendar they have many things to take into consideration. Dr. Butler, the creator of the school calendar, said that “students in New Jersey need to attend school for 180 days. As stipulated in their current contract, our educators work 184 days. There are several days that the District has traditionally observed with a day off including Labor Day, Yom Kippur, Rosh Hashanah, Thanksgiving, NJEA Teachers’ Convention, Christmas, New Year’s Day, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents’ Day, Good Friday, and Memorial Day. We usually have a week off in December and a spring break as well. We build three emergency days off in the event of snow or another emergency school closing and if they are not used, we take those off in May.”
Currently, each year the week of spring break changes to align with Easter which varies from year to year. Instead of being aligned with Easter weekend, Bernards could have spring break earlier or have it later in April and make Easter weekend a three to four day weekend. With the decoupling, Dr. Neigel said “a mid to late march spring break [would be] ideal” based on dates, time off, etc.
However, when it comes to planning out the calendar Dr. Butler had said since “most holidays fall on different days each year, thus each year presents new considerations and have to be looked at differently.”
Dr. Neigel said that he “support[s] the idea of decoupling Spring Break from Easter. Academically and logistically, having a week off in April, sometimes right before AP testing, is less than ideal.”
Other districts such as Ridge and Mendham do not have their spring break attached to Easter weekend. Regarding other districts’ spring break, Dr. Neigel had said that “it varies, and many districts still link their spring break to Easter. I can say that in Mendham, where my own children go to school, spring break is not attached to Easter. That being said, Mendham starts school in late August and ends in early June, so the calendar is shifted a bit.”
Ridge has spring break from April 17th to the 21st and has off the 7th for Good Friday. West Morris Mendham has their spring break from March 27th to the 31st and also has April the 7th off for Good Friday. However, West Morris Mendham also starts school at the end of August instead of after Labor Day. Despite the fact that the idea of decoupling Easter with Bernards’ spring break would bring many benefits to both the students and faculty and is brought up every year, it seems unlikely to change anytime soon.
