Students of Brevard County Public Schools will have to wait until mid-April for Spring Break. Traditionally, Spring Break has taken place every March. Many attempts were made to come in contact with adistrict official who could give a reason as to why spring break is in mid-April. However, after being transferred multiple times on the phone, a conclusive reason was not found. This decision to push back Spring Break has raised eyebrows for both good and bad reasons.

Millie Rosasco, who graduated in 2013, had addressed the school board with concerns that the deciding date for Spring Break is  to fall during Easter and Good Friday. This however, seemed unjust to Rosasco because she is Jewish.

“ Every year for the holiest days in the Jewish religion, I would have to miss school,” Rosasco said.  “While luckily this was considered an excused absence, I would still be missing class material and exams. Then looking through the school calendar I noticed that Good Friday was a day that we had off school — in fact — it was a ‘holiday for all’.”

Rosasco also mentioned that she has always been passionate about religious equality and standing up for what she believes in.

“This issue was something I cared so much about that I wrote my senior paper about religious equality in schools,” Rosasco said. “Before I went to the school board, I wrote two letters to the editor that were published in ‘Florida Today’.”

Principal Rick Fleming said that despite Spring Break being later this year, students are pretty resilient in terms of handling the changes.

“Naturally I think [the students] are going to be a little agitated about having Spring Break so late because they are used to having it during the third or fourth week of March,” Fleming said. “But our students are pretty academically focused, so it should not be too impactful. But I agree to have that drastic of a change is pretty aggravating.”

Fleming also mentioned that the late break might be beneficial for upperclassmen.

“It may help them in their preparations for their upcoming AP exams,” Fleming said. But like I said, I’ve always seen Spring Break as a way for students to unwind before the final grind of the school year. So, to not have that and then to start prepping for exams kind of robs them of a little bit of time that they normally would just be letting their hair down in the spring of their senior year.” 

Senior Danielle Ferretti said having Spring Break in April will affect her plans to spend time with her sister, who attends Florida State University, and whose Spring Break will take place in March 13-17.

“Usually Spring Break is right around the time of my sister’s birthday and so we get to celebrate it with her, but since it’s later this year, we won’t really get to see her,” Ferretti said. “ It makes me really sad because she is about to go to a different college out of state and it’s probably going to be the last year that we [my family] would even be near her during her birthday.”

Ferretti also mentioned that because Spring Break is closer to the time of graduation than before, the amount of time during school after spring break will be really crammed together in terms of testing and work.

By Briana Sandoval