District 90's spring break returns to March for '05 BY CHRIS LAFORTUNE STAFF WRITER Spring break 2005 in District 90 schools will be back to the last week of March, following a one-time change to accommodate state tests this year. District 90's spring break starts April 12 this year, scheduling that has caused some concern among parents, said School Board President Sally DelBeccaro. "We have had a lot of parents who thought that was way too late," she said. "This year we're currently in is only sort of an anomaly." The change this year was made at the request of District 97 in Oak Park, DelBeccaro said. In District 97 and 90, the Illinois Standards Achievement Test this year is scheduled to take place from March 29 to April 8, and District 97 wanted to have the tests before spring break. "It was better for our students to be able to have the exams without having had a break right before they take the exams," said Thomas Hull, District 97 human resources and development director. District 90 tries to coordinate its calendar with both District 97 and the Oak Park-River Forest High School calendar, DelBeccaro said, and so agreed to the change. But in next school year's calendar, approved by the District 90 Board Jan. 20, spring break is back to the last week of March, where it had been for the previous 10 years, DelBeccaro said. The change was possible because ISAT testing was moved to the beginning of March next school year. The state said it needed more time to get test results compiled and sent back to the state's schools, DelBeccaro said. "They were finding that, when it had been in April, it was putting way too much constraint on them to get the tests graded and get the results to the schools in a timely fashion," she said. Hull said District 97 staff would soon have a calendar recommendation before its School Board, and a return to spring break in the last week of March will be part of the recommendation. The OPRF School Board voted on its calendar Jan. 22, and its spring break also was moved back to the last week of March, which corresponds with the end of the school's academic quarter.

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