School Calendar Adopted With Shorter Feb. Break, Sept. 9 Start

Despite a call by some parents to keep the traditional full-week February vacation, the Bernards Board of Education on Monday adopted a revised calendar for next year that shortens the winter break to two days, and pushes up the last day of school to June 20 in 2014.

The first day of school in the revised 2013-14 calendar is Sept. 9, and moves up the weeklong April break, traditionally scheduled later in the month, to April 7 to 11.

The board also removed the Martin Luther King Jr.'s holiday in January from an earlier calendar version as another way of shaving days from the previous final school day of the year, which in the previously adopted school calendar had been June 26, 2014.

The calendar for next year does not include a day off for Diwali, the Indian Festival of Lights, which had been requested multiple times throughout the year by both parents and students among Bernards Township's growing Indian community.

"It's hard to come up with a school calendar that makes everyone happy," said Elaine Kusel. Kusel herself expressed doubts about eliminating the February week vacation, which parent Laura Begg said gives time for parents and students to relieve stress, and also to schedule visits to prospective college choices.

And although a survey sent out earlier this year to parents, staff and Ridge High School juniors and seniors showed differing opinions, Kusel said of the schedule adopted by the board on Monday, "I think the majority would support this calendar."

"I think this should be a one-year test," Kusel said before adding her vote to the board's unanimous approval to the revised calendar.

However, she added she does not think the version adopted on Monday will work. "Three days would have been preferable," she said of the February vacation, now shortened to Feb. 17 to 18, 2014.

The revised school calendar is the same as the draft that was presented at the Feb. 12 school board meeting.

At that time, Schools Superintendent Nick Markarian said the revised calendar also took into account the results of an online survey completed by 2,092 township parents, 333 juniors and seniors and 555 staff members in the school district. Contractual obligations also helped shape the calendar, he said.

Parent Laura Begg, while thanking the staff for the undertaking to review the district calendar, said some parents may have accidentally logged off the survey too soon. She also questioned the wording of some of the questions.

Begg noted that students had supported keeping the full February break in the survey. "As students get older, they need to visit colleges," she said.

The April break also would be scheduled during a time when spring sports are underway, making it difficult for parents and students to get away together.

Begg noted that some private schools eliminate homework and after-school activities on religious holidays so students who celebrate those holidays can do so that night without school obligations.

Begg said she was speaking on behalf of several parents in the community.

Board President Susan McGowan said that the board's attorney had advised that when school is in session, it must be a "business as usual" day even if it is a religious holiday.

Answering another question of why school begins on Sept. 9 next year, Markarian said that teachers have never been asked to report for in-service training prior to Labor Day, although that may change in future contracts. He said teachers need two full days for training, especially with next year's changes in the teacher evaluation process. The Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah also falls on the Thursday in the first week in September, he noted.