As the shortest summer break in East Noble history draws to a close, the 2014-2015 school year is beginning and has some new surprises in store. This year high school students will be experiencing an extended calendar schedule and will receive an extra week off in the fall in addition to a longer spring break.

The school year will span a slightly longer period of time than normal, beginning on August 7, 2014, and ending on June 3, 2015, unless enough cancellations have accumulated due to Indiana’s unpredictable winter weather. As of now there are four potential make-up days: one on Presidents’ Day in February and three consecutive Fridays in May. One of these Fridays lies on the same weekend as Memorial Day, meaning an extra-long weekend could be up ahead in the distant future.

Aside from this, four holiday breaks are slated for this year, excluding Labor Day weekend in September. The first break, something completely new to East Noble, starts after school on Thursday, October 2 and ends Monday, October 13 with exactly ten days in between. Thanksgiving break comes next at the end of November with a Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday off school. As usual, Christmas break will consist of two weeks without school, starting at 2:58 PM Friday, December 19 and ending on Monday, January 5. Last but not least, spring break will now be twice as long, lasting two weeks instead of one. It will start after school Friday, March 20 and end on Monday, April 6.

Although this extended calendar has some extra time away from school to offer, there are still a lot of mixed feelings in high school kids regarding the issue. A large number of them are not pleased to be heading back to school so early. After all, this has been the shortest summer on record for East Noble High School. It consisted 61 days while last summer break was a total of 70 days.

Nevertheless, those 61 days are up, and a new school year is beginning. Let’s all try to make the most of the fresh opportunities it gives us inside and outside the school building.