Forget senioritis—second semester at Staples High School breads an illness that transcends all four grade levels.

Thanks to faulty vacation scheduling, second semester at Staples is broken into a number of irredeemable parts. And after consideration, the town—perhaps wrongly—turned down a potential change for the better.

“Among the nine specific calendar proposals we discussed were two that eliminated the February and April recesses (two weeks in total) and substituted a one week recess in late March,” said Board of Education (BOE) Vice Chairman James Marpe in an email. “We did not consider a two week March recess. In the end, we voted to approve a calendar that continues the tradition of February and April recesses.”

For those unaccustomed to the current scheduling system, Staples differs from some high schools across the country in that it has two comparatively short breaks in February and in April instead of a longer break in March.

While having two vacations sounds a lot nicer than having just one, this plan falls apart year after year.

Not only are there two stoppages in February and April, but CAPT testing also consumes much of March, while AP testing takes up much of May for many juniors and seniors. One could probably count the number of “legitimate” weeks students have left on one hand.

As students, we have all marveled at the schedule, taking pleasure in our scattered second semesters. But let’s be real: what sense does it really make?

Marpe brings up a number of good points to defend the BOE’s decision. For one, the April break is a great time for juniors to visit colleges, something they would not be able to do during a March vacation that is shared with colleges across the country.

Perhaps a bigger obstacle is that a one-week March break, which Staples had over a decade ago and was unpopular then—would not give students and teachers the proper amount of time to unwind during the school year.

However, I counter: what about a two-week long March vacation? Since we would be cutting two separate weeks from the February and April calendars, a two-week vacation would not be cutting into any school time.

Frankly, it is a lot more practical than our current system. Instead of having the constant stop-and-go that our current calendar dictates, Staples students would be able to learn efficiently and have two long vacations to rest in December and March. I am not here to advocate for the new plan, but merely for the students who will potentially be affected by it.

Think: teachers will no longer have to cram four and five tests in right before the end of a quarter. No longer will one bad test grade kill you in an unbelievably short third quarter. And, as weird as it sounds, it will be much easier to get into a rhythm during the middle of the school year with just a March vacation. A schedule change of this magnitude should lead to more successful, better-educated students.

It’s not like we would gain any school days, either—they would just be displaced. A long March vacation would be congruous to the rest of the nation and would provide the proper break between the first and second half of the year.

Another perhaps unintended effect this could have would be on midterms. With more school days available in the second semester, the school should theoretically be able to move midterms before December vacation, which would eliminate the stress of winter break. January would simply be the start of a new semester.

Good things abound with this calendar change—there is a reason the majority of the nation has March vacations. It’s just unfortunate that Westport isn’t gutsy enough to advocate for it.