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Finals one week after break due to schedule change

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finals after breakThis year’s school calendar pushes back winter break, leaving one week between the end of break and the beginning of finals week. The PUSD calendar committee set up several calendar options based upon the number of days in the school year and the placement of holidays mandated by the state. The calendar choices were narrowed down by the negotiation committee and later voted on by teachers.

History teacher Mark Cowherd has not had to alter his lesson plans due to the change.

“It’s really the same number of days leading up to finals week, they are just broken up differently,” Cowherd said.

In previous years, math teacher John Hayden was able to introduce new material after winter break. This year, he does not want to teach new information the week before finals and will have to wrap up his lessons before break. He will have to spend more time reviewing after the break than he normally would.

“It’s the same number of days, but realistically, the only thing we could do during that week when we come back is prepare for finals,” Hayden said.

Hayden said that if he falls behind in his lesson plans this year, he will change his finals according to what he has covered before the break.

“It has caught me a little off guard just because it feels like there is less time leading up to finals,” Hayden said.

Hayden said that although teachers will be fully prepared for finals week, the new schedule may leave student rushing to re-learn material a week before their finals.

Cowherd will provide his students the material that will be covered on his finals before the break. He said that he wants his students to regularly review the information, so that they will not forget it by finals week.

“Hopefully students will use the time wisely and study for their finals during break,” Cowherd said.

Freshman Jenny Hosler said that although she feels confident, most students will not study and will forget the information they learned before the break.

“It probably won’t negatively affect me because I plan on studying over break to make sure I do well on my finals,” Hosler said.

Senior Jonny Tran said that due to the fact that winter break is long, Students will forget a lot of the information that they learned prior. He said that it will be a challenge to have to do finals so soon after coming back.

“I’m not too worried about it right now,” Tran said. “ But during the week back I know I’ll be panicking about relearning everything I forgot over break and preparing for finals.”

Sophomore Gelly Miller said that she does not want to have to worry about finals during her break. She said that although she could study during break, she will most likely put it off until she comes back to school.

“Finals will be harder for me and I will have less time to study between break and finals week,” sophomore Gelly Miller said.

Miller said that she would rather have finals before winter break so that she does not have to think about them during her time off. Others would also prefer to see finals held before the break.

“I would rather have the school year start earlier so that the semester could end before winter break, then we could be out of school by May,” Cowherd said.

Cowherd said having finals before break would allow students and faculty to fully enjoy their break. Students would not have to retain information during their two weeks off.

Hayden agreed with Cowherd. He said students need down time to step away and not worry about school in order to maintain their level of achievement and become more focused when they come back.

“[The break] is supposed to be a time to regenerate and recuperate from school, so students should be taking some of that time off,” Hayden said. “If they feel like they have to be studying the whole time, it kind of defeats the purpose of having some time off.”

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