HHS Adopts New Finals Schedule

HHS has adopted a new finals schedule for the fall semester finals set to take place from December 19th through the 21st.

According to an email sent out by HHS Principal Jeff Linden, the reason the old finals schedule, which used to last four days, has been reduced to three days is “…to have students solely focus on their Semester Finals during those 3-days and not repeat any courses during finals week,” Linden said. 

Aside from the change in the length of finals week, another main change to the schedule is the start and release times during the three days of finals week. In the new schedule, students aren’t required to be at school until 9:35 a.m. each morning, but they can come to the school and report to their second or third period classes as early as 8 a.m. every morning. Also, students are dismissed at 2:45 p.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday and 1:15 p.m. on Thursday, but they can stay at the school as late as 4 p.m. each day to get help from teachers or make up any finals they missed.

“I really like [the new schedule] just because we get out early every day, and we don’t have to like sit around in class periods basically twiddling our thumbs,” junior Katie Drake said. “[Getting out early] is great. And we get to come to school late, which is great too.”

Students are required to be at school for a shorter amount of time than last year because of three finals being taken back-to-back during the first two days and the second and third period finals being taken back-to-back on the last day which eliminates the two periods per day in the old schedule when students weren’t taking a final. 

“One of the things that we were really passionate about was that our priority should be taking finals, not filling time and just wasting time during finals week, because the way we had laid it out, you would take the final earlier in the week and then you just have to basically waste time the rest of the week in that class. And so we wanted to eliminate that and say, if we’re done, then let’s go home,” Yost said. 

Drake likes that the new schedule includes taking tests back-to-back because she thinks it will make the time spent at school during the week feel like it’s going by faster.

“Well, I like how we just do our finals back to back to back and just like get it all over with because honestly,… I feel like that goes by better for my head, and like just in my head everything rolls through my mind faster going like that instead of taking one test then waiting and seeing another test and then waiting and just like, it flows better,” Drake said.

Being required to be at school for a shorter amount of time, specifically, having a later start time, gives students more freedom, and it gives them the option to sleep in longer in the morning or come in early to get extra help from teachers.

“I mean, I think the general consensus is that like, everyone likes it. So I feel like it’ll have a more positive impact just because the people who are going to study a whole lot are going to be studying late into the night especially if they have jobs and other extracurriculars,” Drake said. “So starting late gives them time to sleep, and then go in and ask questions if they need it. And then also it’ll be less time to mess around and get in trouble on the last three days of school, which tends to happen because there’s just downtime.”

The late start and the opportunity to stay at the school until 4:00 also gives students a chance to make up any finals they may have missed during the week.

“I think people like the schedule more. It gives more flexibility then if you like miss a test. Then you can come in during that extra period at the end of the day and make up your test,” Hoffman said.

Having optional periods for students in the morning and after school gets out also benefits teachers because it gives them the opportunity to grade finals during that time so they can have students’ grades finished sooner.

“I know teachers are really excited about it, mostly because we don’t have to come up with things to fill time. But also the opportunity in the mornings, to grade finals and things like that will help us a ton because we can’t leave on Friday until we have our final grades in and so what that will do is it’ll allow us to enjoy a little bit of a slower end of our semester than having to cram everything Thursday night and Friday morning,” Yost said. 

One thing the teachers who created the schedule kept in mind was that students have to be able to eat lunch and breakfast at the school throughout the week, which is why students aren’t allowed to leave school until after D lunch on Thursday.

“One of the biggest things that we had to consider that students and parents probably wouldn’t think about is providing breakfast for students, because a lot of people will come and you know, breakfast will be a big deal and then also providing lunch on the last day. You’ll notice that kids can’t leave until after everyone eats lunch on Thursday,” Yost said. “And so there’s some requirements by the state and the funding and things to make sure that we continue to offer those, so it was not only was working with teachers and transportation and things like that, but it was also working with the cafeteria to make sure that our class schedule and time kids are in the building would work with them too.”

One downside of having a later start is that because students aren’t required to be at the school, teachers don’t know which or how many students to expect which can make keeping track of the students in the school more difficult.

“My least favorite part is that we’re going to have some kids that will show up at 8 a.m. or 7:30, and we can’t just like close the school until 9:30 when class starts, because I think it’ll just kind of create some problems of, you know, some teachers will have one or two kids in class and some teachers will have their full class show up,” Yost said. “You know, some kids will be in the hallway or just, maybe their kid will get dropped off at the front door and they’ll walk to McDonald’s, so I think that’s kind of some gray area that is my least favorite part of the whole thing.”

For students who either don’t like the new schedule, or who liked the old schedule better, finding a ride to the school or going to school in the morning without being sure who will be there, and not having the periods in between finals to study are two downsides of the new schedule. Yost would say that studying for your finals during the normal school hours that students aren’t required to be in school during finals week should be doable, and he hopes that times in the morning are fairly relaxed so students don’t feel like they’re missing out because they were dropped off early.

“Well, if you liked having the periods in between to study and you can do that at home, I think that’s totally doable. You can also get here at 8 a.m. and then study in the library if that’s what you want to do. You know, to those who can’t get a ride, I think that was one of our concerns and one of the questions of if it was going to be approved or not by administration. So I think that will be one one loophole, but I think that teachers and students hopefully are going to keep that time a little more relaxed so kids can study but also it’s, there’s not a lot of pressure where you feel like if you did come that you are getting the shaft of you know, oh, it’s not fun because I got dropped off early,” Yost said.

Whether or not HHS will continue to use the new schedule will probably depend on how the schedule plays out.

“I have no idea [if we’ll use the new schedule after this semester],” Yost said. “If it works well. In theory, it should work well, but you know, you never really know until you try it. And then you go, ooh, that was a loophole we didn’t think about, but I’m hopeful that this is something that we can [address], if it doesn’t look the exact same at least this is heading us in the right direction.”