Most grading periods end on the cusp of a school break. However, the third quarter comes to a close Friday, leaving students and teachers one more week before spring break, a situation that came about due to several factors according to principal Stacey Whaling. 

“Whenever the Calendar Committee meets, they decide based on all of the things they have to account for throughout the school year: professional development, all the other vacations,” Whaling said. “They can kinda place it where – and they also look at what surrounding districts are doing too. So, it’s really not like just a one thing decision; it’s they’re taking into account a lot of things.”

For both students and teachers on campus, the unusual placement of spring break elicits mixed feelings.

“I wish we could’ve had it after the end of third quarter because it would’ve given us a nice break after a stressful week of summatives,” sophomore Charita Degulapet said. “[But,] I can use the spring break to catch up on assignments and maybe get ahead of what we are doing in class.”

For teacher Jill Bradshaw, the delayed break provides a buffer for turning in grades, but poses a challenge when it comes to planning what to teach and ensuring students retain information.

“As a teacher’s perspective, I think it helps – it gives me more time to get my grades in; so, I have that extra week in there,” Bradshaw said. “But as like a planning perspective, it makes it kinda difficult because we want to teach within that week, but we know that after that week break, it may be hard for the students to kinda retain that knowledge, knowing that we’re gonna have to probably spend a day reviewing everything that we taught that week prior.”

But for Whaling, despite the challenge of coordinating conflicting breaks across districts, spring break still presents a much needed break for students and teachers alike.

“I kind of like where it is this year,” Whaling said. “I think that the one thing that gets hard is when teachers with kids or spouses have spring breaks that are different times. That to me is like when it gets a little bit challenging. But, other than that, I think that everyone is just kind of looking forward to a break.”

Spring break is set to start on Mar. 17 with students returning to campus on Mar. 24.