School schedules led to conflicts planning spring break trips this year. While the spring vacation usually falls around St. Patrick’s Day, this year it is the previous week from March 11-15. Most other Kansas public schools, including the Olathe and Blue Valley districts, will be on the same March 11-15 schedule.

However Rockhurst High School and St. Teresa’s Academy will be the following week along with other Missouri public schools including the Lee’s Summit and Raymore districts.

“This happens about once every five years. But we’ve thought about it a lot and have discussed with Rockhurst and STA and have decided that this is what makes the most sense,” High School Principal Natalie McDonough said. “We also look at most of the grade schools that feed into here because of siblings schedules.”

The week of March 11 is the perfect break in the second semester, which is partly why it was chosen,  according to McDonough. There are exactly nine weeks before and after spring break, which will give seniors enough time to focus on their grades and testing. If it were the following week, that would only leave seniors with five or six weeks.

“It’s perfect for the amount of time for seniors and with the quarter ending,” Assistant Principal for Student Life Fran Koehler said.

Rockhurst and St. Teresa’s said that they try their best to revolve their spring breaks as close to St. Patrick’s Day as possible. The three schools have stated that they work together to accommodate each other’s needs and find common dates. However, according to Rockhurst Principal Greg Harkness, many times it is not possible that they all line up.

“Since we take the week of St. Patrick’s Day off, and Sunday is the first day of the week,” Harkness said, “we are off during that week.”

STA Principal of Student Affairs Liz Baker said that traditionally, like Rockhurst, they try to keep spring break close to St. Patrick’s Day. Baker said they always try to collaborate with the city’s private schools.

“We want to have due diligence towards our school families keeping in mind the reality of scheduling for siblings and our dear neighbors at Sion and Rockhurst,” Baker said.

As a result, senior Keali Myrick and her friends are choosing to plan their spring break trips accordingly with their friends from Rockhurst,  STA, and Shawnee Mission East and will be traveling from Tuesday to Sunday, overlapping the weeks.

“I didn’t like that our schedule was different from Rockhurst and STA because most of our friends go to those schools,” Myrick said. “It was sad that we couldn’t spend our break with them but we made it work and will be able to spend three days with them which is fine.”