It appears parents and teachers have two differing views on when spring break should occur.
The Kootenay Lake school district is preparing its 2014/15 calendar and surveyed both groups on when to hold the annual break.
Teachers favour March 16 to 27. However, if that time period is chosen, students would return to school on Monday March 30, only to have April 3 (Good Friday) and April 5 (Easter Monday) off.
The majority of parents, on the other hand, preferred spring break to run from March 23 to April 5, which would therefore include the Easter holiday.
At least it would for that year.
One of the difficulties in including Easter is the date changes.
This year the Easter long weekend is April 18 to 21, next year it’s April 3 to 5 and in 2016 it’s March 25 to 28.
Makes it a little hard to plan a regular spring break year after year.
It sounds a little bizarre, but Easter is held on the first Sunday after the first full moon in spring (which starts March 21). That means Easter Sunday can fall anywhere between March 22 and April 25.
Each year the school district goes through the effort to plan the following year’s calendar and most years the topic of spring break arises.
So whose opinion should carry the most weight? Teachers or parents?
There are arguments for both sides, but when you get down to the basics, it’s the parents who have to arrange daycare, take time off work, enrol kids in programs, plan vacations or whatever needs to be done to both entertain and care for the children.
So sorry teachers, but parents’ wishes have to outweigh your expert opinions.