This year, M-A’s spring break falls at the end of April from the 18th to the 26th, unlike the breaks of many other schools in the Bay Area. The prolonged wait before spring break has raised complaints from students and teachers alike, despite its initial intentions.
Though many people blame the late spring break on the administration, Instructional Vice Principal Steve Lippi explains that it is a district decision. All calendar decisions are made at the Sequoia Union High School District superintendent staff level. They are approved by the Sequoia District Teachers Association, and then brought to the teachers of each school in the district to be ratified before a final decision is made. The decision to have spring break late, and not the week before or after Easter, was made in an effort to equally space out the time between all of M-A’s breaks.
Lippi believes that the late spring break is actually beneficial because “there isn’t such a long haul between breaks.” He says that it was a logical decision to place spring break between M-A’s other breaks, like President’s weekend, Cesar Chavez Day, and Memorial Day so students don’t overwork themselves. Also, he says the break before AP testing and finals leaves students more time to study. According to Lippi, the break will not harm AP test scores, and if anything, will help to improve them.
At the other end of the debate, Benjamin Wellington, AP US History and World Studies teacher, believes the break is too late and is “rough on all students and all the teachers as well… I wish it was a couple weeks earlier like the last week of March”. Specifically, he believes it is hard on his APUSH students because the class still needs to finish learning the content and then review it in a small period of time before the test. Wellington vaguely remembers an email sent out about a year ago to teachers about the late spring break allowing them to submit comments or vote on the dates. However, because the email was not explicit, he believes not many teachers voted on the date; thus many are now unsatisfied with the late break.
Similarly, AS English II and AP Art History teacher Liane Strub does not remember voting on the dates. She says that she “is very frustrated by it” because “it is hard on AP teachers like [herself] because [she has] to give four 90-minute review sessions in one week.” Although Strub does not think the students’ scores will be affected, she is concerned about how the students will “muster the energy to do APs when they are so exhausted.” Like Wellington, Strub hopes that next year’s spring break will be much earlier.
Senior Miranda Alfano-Smith also expressed her distress with the late break’ because “the last break this year was in winter, students are burned out and need some time to sleep.” With teachers piling on the school work, Alfano-Smith believes the situation is difficult because all of their finals are before a break.
Because of this year’s response, Lippi predicts that next year spring break will be the Friday after Cesar Chavez Day, or the week of April 4th.
