McNamara experiences two different spring breaks, one in March and one in April

Amanda Wilson ‘13
Staff Writer

This year McNamara had two different spring breaks, and McNamara students are wondering why.

According to Mr. Marco Clark, President and CEO, “The reason we have two springs breaks this year is because Easter is so late this year. If we waited to have our traditional spring break [the week of Easter] it meant that we would have come back to school on May 2nd which is very late. The seniors would only have a few weeks left, AP exams being on May 2nd, and for everyone else there would only be a month left of school.”

According to Mr. Shin, who heads the Calendar Committee at McNamara, “we decided to go with two breaks because of how late Easter was this year. If we took our normal break during Easter, we were concerned that it would negatively impact our students especially our seniors and those taking AP exams.”

The Calendar Committee plans the calendar and works out what and when things will happen at McNamara. Mr. Shin is in charge of this committee. Mr. Shin said through an email that, “there are no set committee members. I request feedback from the entire faculty/staff. We do ask for representatives from each major department in the school.”

Having another break in April is because of Easter. According to Mr. Clark, “We are still taking Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Monday off because this is one of the holiest and most sacred times of the year in the Church.”

The first break was in March and lasted from the 16th of March until the 3rd of April, with students returning on April 4th. The second break, which will be McNamara’s Easter break with it starting on the 21st of April and ending on the 25th which means that the students will return on April 26th.

Many students thought that having two spring breaks was a good idea. Timothy Drumtra ‘13 said that it was “Awesome!”

“To optimize academic performance at the end of the year, a late spring break would not have been an opportune time to be out of school. So with that in mind, we looked for a good week earlier in the spring to take spring break,” said Mr. Clark.