The district has decided to implement a new school year calendar which brings up the start of the school year to mid-August and the end before Memorial Day weekend. The intention of changing the calendar was to alter the final exam schedule. With the new changes, first semester exams will take place prior to winter break and second semester exams will be the week after AP exams. This change was made by the district and the supposed opinion of the students. I distinctly recall signing a petition against the new schedule, but I have no recollection of voting for this new schedule.
Having finals before winter vacation is supposed to lead to a more relaxing, stress free vacation. Speaking as a good student myself, I have never let homework or finals consume my winter break. The long break was a convenient time for teachers to assign final projects, but it was never anything too unreasonable. As a result of the calendar change, I fear that teachers will be assigning large scale projects over the short break we have for Thanksgiving. I really hope this is not the case as that would undoubtedly ruin my Thanksgiving.
Also, AP classes are two semesters long. Just because the semester is over does not mean AP teachers won’t be assigning more work over winter break to be used in the second semester grading period. In past years, we have had a long weekend after finals. While there is no homework from classes that have ended, I always have homework in year long classes during that time. This will more than likely happen over winter break, despite finals being over.
Ultimately, the goal of starting the school year early was to move up the spring final exams to right after AP exams. Generally, after AP exams there is two to three weeks until the end of the school year and final exams. During this time, AP students have no material left to learn. As our school strongly encourages that everyone take as many AP courses as possible, they want to eliminate this useless period of time at the end of the year and bring it to the beginning of the year. What they did not take into account was how stressful the end of the year will be for AP students. Students will be going straight from AP exams to finals week. It will be very difficult to teach end of the year materials when a few students are missing daily for various AP exams. Without those extra few weeks between APs and finals, students will fall behind and not be prepared for final exams.
But by far the most aggravating result of the new school calendar is its interference with the summer. While ending school before Memorial Day seems nice, is it really summer in May? We live in Chicago – it is still snowing in April! And although it was not the case this year, August is one of the hottest months in Chicago. Starting school so early can be torture when students are sitting in school while all their friends and family are enjoying the true summer weather.
Niles North starting early also negatively affects summer programs, camps and pools. High school students make up the majority of camp counselors and lifeguards. With students going back so early in August, these various places will have to readjust their schedules as well. For many Niles North families that have younger children, the early start caused them to run into a larger problem. Without older siblings at home, who will watch the younger siblings? I know in my house, we haven’t had to think about finding my younger brother a babysitter since I was ten. Suddenly my parents, and many others in the same situation, realized they had to find childcare for two weeks, which can be financially difficult.
To me it just seems ridiculous to start school in the middle of the summer and end while everyone is still in school and it is still fairly cold outside. Students have managed just fine with the old schedule, scoring relatively well on AP exams and finals. The decision to start school early has impacted not only students, teachers and their families, but the entire district community. I definitely think the district needs to reconsider the early start date for the sake of the community.
