According to the Springfield Public Schools (SPS) calendar, the first semester is 81 days long and second semester is 91 days long. There is more time off in the first semester including Thanksgiving  and winter break that cuts off the fall from the spring. This may or may not be the reason why the semesters are uneven, considering the second semester does have spring time off which is the same length as Thanksgiving. The true difference may really be the two week down time in between semesters that doesn’t include winter break. 

   Instead of having only a two week holiday between semesters, what if we extended the intermission an extra week to really let kids enjoy their time off of school? In my opinion, having more time off during the spring semester that would split the difference from spring to the end of the school year would benefit the most people in the district. 

   I think that extending winter break a week into the second semester or having an extra interval during the spring semester would be the best option. Both of these give kids time to spend with their families and to take trips if they want to.

   To inform us on why there is an uneven amount of days, our Principal Dr. Bill Powers, has an explanation on whether long hiatus’s have an impact on the ten day split in days we are at school between the semesters.

   “The reason that the first semester is shorter than the second semester is because of a law in Missouri where schools can’t start two weeks before the first Monday in September. The second reason is we used to go to school on the Monday and Tuesday of Thanksgiving, but that ended a few years ago. Also we used to extend the first semester into after winter break, but because of winter weather, the district stopped that. These three factors all contribute to this issue,” Powers said. 

   This all makes sense as there are certain criteria the district must meet for them to operate properly and efficiently for the students. 

   To look into it, there are certain ways that students are able to learn better and take in more information from their classes. Having an uneven schedule may impact students in such a way that they are more stressed out in one semester than the other. If the semesters were the same length, I think students would be able to learn more without as much stress. 

   “Myself, and teachers I have spoken with, feel as if the fall semester is not long enough and that is a fact. Not having those 10 extra days like the spring semester has, makes teachers feel like they have to crunch important material but because of snow days it seems as if it might be a smoother learning experience because the weeks don’t just get cut short due to snow,” Powers said.

     The first semester is 10 days shorter, so for the administration to also feel that the fall semester is too short, it should give an indication that a lot of others feel this way, and so do I. A perfect 86 to 86 split of days in both semesters is a hope of many.

   Part of this issue could be because of the way SPS has our time off set out. It would be hard to add a break during the second semester because of how time off during the spring is right in the middle of it, but it is possible. 

   This could be the real solution, and would make students a lot happier to come back at the end of the year with a productive attitude. This will positively impact students all around and promote a better learning environment. 

   “After spring break there is a long time without a break, we get one day off in April, but I think half way through April having a mini intermission that could fit into the schedule that’s several days long, I think would be great. After spring break there is about eight to nine weeks straight of school and people get tired, ” Powers said.

   I personally agree with this statement, and that was one of my solutions to fix this calendar problem of uneven days. Having a higher up perspective that thinks that, I believe many people in the district would appreciate this mini rest.

   My proposal is to either extend winter break or to have a small amount of time off during the spring semester. Although this may not fix the issue completely, it will close the gap between the 10 day difference in school days. I also wanted to know what the administration thinks about their proposal to fix this issue.

   “It would take either for us to be able to start school a little earlier and maybe finish a little sooner, evening it out, or to what I said earlier of having a break midway through April. It does come back to the state though because we get our funding from the state government through how many days we record attendance at school that is why we had to start AMI days this year. So, trying to find a middle ground with the criteria for the government and the calendar is the issue,” Powers said  

   The district has to have funding to be able to run our school, so finding a way to work around this and to be able to fit these solutions  into our schedule whilst the school still gets adequate funding will be the way to do it. It might include some compromises during the year such as going back to the old 

Thanksgiving schedule or having to cut a couple of days out on winter break. Although, I do think that having a small time off after spring break would help everyone at our school. We will have to see the effects of my idea by putting it into action.