BUSD changes calendar to move Spring Break prior to Easter

Joe Naiman

Village News Reporter

The Bonsall Unified School District desires to have Spring Break the week prior to Easter, and the May 17 BUSD board meeting approved a correction in the 2023-24 school year calendar which changes next year’s Spring Break from the week after Easter to the week before Easter.

The board’s 3-0 vote, with Larissa Anderson and Pascal Lapoirie absent, moves Spring Break from April 1-8 to March 25-April 1. Easter will fall on March 31 next year.

“We wanted to put it back to where it was supposed to be,” said BUSD superintendent Joseph Clevenger.

At one time school districts had an Easter Break the week before Easter. The secularization of the week-long school vacation eliminated any necessity for school districts to close campuses during Holy Week, which begins with Palm Sunday, seven days prior to Easter and includes Holy Thursday and Good Friday.

In March 2021 BUSD staff brought the proposed 2021-22 calendar to the board. Concerns about Spring Break being the week after Easter rather than the week before Easter caused the board to delay action.

A revision in the calendar requires concurrence from the school district's classified and certificated employees, who had approved the calendar with the break after Easter, so the 2021-22 calendar was revised at the April 2021 BUSD board meeting.

Many families travel for Easter celebrations. The reasons for changing the 2021-22 calendar also included ensuring that students who take classes at Palomar College, whose Spring Break is the week before Easter, have the same one-week break.

A 2023-24 calendar with April 1-8 as Spring Break was approved by the BUSD board Feb. 15. “Somebody miscalculated,” said Clevenger.

The date of Easter is based on the lunar cycle, and calculating dates for 2024 must also take into account that next year will be a leap year. “We were able to fix it before it went out en masse to our parents,” said Clevenger.

Other changes to the 2023-24 calendar provide greater clarity for students and parents on non-student days and minimum days. The staff calendar was modified to identify professional development time more precisely.

The 2023-24 BUSD calendar provides for 180 student days, 182 days for returning teachers and 183 days for new teachers. Fridays which are not full school holidays will be early release days.

New teachers will start the 2021-22 school year Aug. 11 while veteran teachers will report to campus Aug. 14. The first day of school will be Aug. 16, which is a Wednesday. Labor Day which will be Sept. 4 in 2023 will be a school holiday.

The first quarter will end Oct. 19 and parent conferences for elementary school students are scheduled for Oct. 24-27 which will be minimum days at those schools.

Veterans' Day is Nov. 11, but because that will be a Saturday this fall, the school holiday will be Nov. 10.

Thanksgiving Break will be Nov. 20-24 not including the preceding and following weekends. High school students only will have minimum days Dec. 19 and Dec. 20, with all students having Dec. 21 as a minimum day.

A two-week winter break will begin Dec. 22 and be followed by the return to school on Jan. 8, 2024 for teachers and Jan. 9 for students.

Martin Luther King Day will give students and staff Jan. 15 off from school. School will be off for Presidents Week from Feb. 19 to Feb. 23 along with preceding and following weekend days.

The final holiday, other than Spring Break, will be Memorial Day on May 27. Finals for high school students are scheduled for June 5-6. The final day of school for students and 10-month district employees will be June 7.