Rumor Has It

Senior year is the most sought after experience in high school which includes new privileges. Perhaps the most exciting privilege at Westminster is ending school work in April and being done with school a month before any other grade. Unfortunately, starting next year for the class of 2017 and the grades following, senior year will not include the same privilege of getting out from school an entire month early.

“Once the administration started making decisions of changing the Senior Integration Project (SIP), we started revising other decisions, one being the seniors getting out early” said Noah Brink, assistant head of school-academics. By revising the Senior Integration Project that is apart of the bible curriculum senior year, it made more sense to change the date of senior’s end of the year dismissal due to the workload.

Another important aspect that was involved in the decision making process was the teacher’s opinions. “I started asking the teachers if seniors ultimately do end their school work by the end of April but the teachers agreed that it would be helpful if they had the two extra weeks to teach because they were starting to cram a lot of information in” said Brink.

Also, the seniors last day of school is also dependent on the AP test schedule. With the AP tests starting after the seniors release date, it creates problems academically for those taking the AP tests since they do not have class anymore.

Athletic challenges also arise from being released from school in April. Seniors who participate in spring sports still have practices and competitions, even though they get out in April. “Mentally, it is a challenge for seniors to stay motivated and focused in their sports once they are out of school which can bring challenges to the coaches” said Brink.

While getting out a whole month early is something that rising seniors look forward to, administration had different views that address the academics. Adding two weeks onto the end of senior year is a drastic change. However seniors are still entitled to their privilege of getting out from school a bit earlier than other grades, even if it is only 2 weeks earlier rather than a month.