On Saturday Oct. 5, senior Timothy Tsang won’t be attending the morning’s homecoming festivities.  Instead, he will be sitting in a desk and filling in a scantron for the SAT. Tsang has chosen to give the SAT one more shot before college applications are due.

“To be honest, I’m quite glad. It’s always nice to have some fun after taking the SAT. Even though, I’m really upset about missing the parade and breakfast,” said Tsang.

Other students who are taking the SAT on homecoming morning, such as senior Orian Shkrobut, are not as optimistic about the conflict.

“On the day of homecoming, I planned to relax in the morning. But now I have to wake up early to take a four hour test on the day of Homecoming,” said Shkrobut.

The SAT conflicting with homecoming also affects the agenda for the morning’s festivities. For example, a number of band students who would otherwise perform in the parade and game will be absent because of the SAT.

Mr. Matt Kurinsky, band director, estimates that about 10 or 20 of the 227 band students will be taking the SAT.

“It’s going to affect the parade because we’ll be missing about 10 to 15 percent of the band. That’s a lot. Hopefully the SAT will be over by the time the football game starts and most of the students can perform then,” Kurinsky said.

This year’s homecoming game is against Lions Township, which is scheduled to begin at noon. Usually the SAT ends around noon or shortly thereafter. However, because Central isn’t hosting the test, students must go to other testing centers.

“I have to go to Neuqua Valley High School for the SAT,” Tsang said.

Some believe that better planning could’ve prevented this dilemma.

“I don’t know what was scheduled first, if it the homecoming or the test.  But obviously you have to be really careful. Our students are involved in a lot of things, and our students take the SAT and the ACT and the PLAN usually more than once. We need to be conscious of when those dates are,” said Kurinsky.