Last school year, Superintendent Nicholas Wahl proposed moving first semester final exams before winter break; however, that proposal will not be applied next year.
“Earlier this year at the CLT, which is the group of department chairs and administrators, we talked about ways where we could help students’ stress levels at school, and we were told that one of the things shared with the administration by parents and student groups was finals,” said David Lange, English Department chairperson. “There was a push [for finals to be before break]. There was a great deal of support from the department for a whole range of ideas of what finals might really look like.”
While individual departments support restructuring final exams, the idea couldn’t be applied to just Central, and instead the issue has been taken to the district. “We were told as a school that it wasn’t something we were going to work with at all, it was a big SEL (Social Emotional Learning) initiative, and there’s a district committee that will look at it,” Lange said.
Some students are disappointed by the decision. “I feel like if finals were before break, I would do better,” said Kevin Bhatt, sophomore. “I wouldn’t forget as much because there wouldn’t be those two weeks of doing nothing.”
Others felt much more strongly about it. “This is a completely stupid decision that basically destroys the purpose of winter break,” said Sushane Kumar, junior. “When you think of summer break, winter break, etc., you think ‘Oh sweet, no tests to study for and no homework to do,’ but winter break you think ‘Oh, I have to study for finals.’”
However, there are also students who agree with the decision. “If finals were moved, there would be two weeks after break where we would do nothing when we could be studying,” said Naveen Balaji, junior.
Balaji, however, feels that his opinion is in the minority. “Most kids probably want finals moved so that they are less stressed after break,” Balaji said.
For the future, Lange, and other members of the administration, are looking into ways to reduce the stress of finals. I think we should have official ability to have kids opt out of finals. Students here take an awful lot of classes, that’s the biggest problem, that they take seven and they’re all hard academic classes with finals.
For the meantime the final exams schedule will stay the same.
