Taking a month-long trip during the spring semester of sophomore year sounds like a stressful recipe that can only end in stacks of overdue papers. Sophomore Laurel Larson is making she is on top of it.

Larson will be going to Europe for the month of April and will be visiting Germany, Italy, France, Switzerland and Greece. Due to her love for ancient history, she is excited to visit Athens and see the historic architecture the country offers.

“I am really excited for Greece because I get to go to Rome, and that is going to be really cool,” Larson said.

Her cousin is hosting her and her grandmother for the month of April so they can see the historical landmarks that ancient Europe has to offer.

While this trip will provide opportunities for Larson, she is slightly apprehensive about missing weeks of school.

“I am scared that when I come back I won’t know anything,” she said.

Larson’s fears about leaving Sandpoint High for a month are shared by school administration and teachers who have some concerns about students leaving for extended periods of time.

“For me [and my class] it’s brutal, because I do a lot of things to help kids get things when they miss,” teacher Leticia Mullen said. “But any time of long-term missing classes is not good for anyone.”

Although it can be stressful for many students to take extended time off, Larson has communicated with all her teachers and is on her way to filling out absent forms and getting her extended absence essay approved.

While Larson is feeling more prepared for this upcoming April, extended vacations could potentially harm the school funding.

Sandpoint High is funded by ADA (Average Daily Attendance) and when students miss a day, the school loses an average of $23.50 of funding per hour, which can potentially result in fewer funds for activities.

However, SHS may switch to enrollment based funding, which can eradicate the problems of attendance-based funding for the school.