With the removal of finals, seniors are now expected to show up for all classes until graduation. Although seniors are expected to be at school for four extra days, students don’t go to all their classes for any of those four days. On Monday, seniors are expected to go to their first two classes as expected, but then have to go to the cafeteria for the entirety of third period for a senior meeting. With this new schedule, seniors miss their 3rd and 7th period the whole week, having to say goodbye to their former teachers the week before. Seniors not getting a break before graduation, will become more likely to get passes to leave early, which will then cause attendance issues, and will ultimately result  in not being able to graduate because they accumulate too many absences. 

Although seniors are still supposed to show up the last week of school, the administration is still expecting seniors to return all district owned supplies (chromebooks, textbooks, etc.) by May 15. With this, students will have nothing to do in those classes that they are expected to attend and teachers will have to adjust their lessons to either be computer free, or make it so students can play games and have fun without consequences. With the law of no personal electronic devices still being in effect, students will have to come up with their own ways to entertain themselves. 

Even though the administration promotes seniors showing up for the last week of school, students only have Monday as a full day. With Tuesday and Wednesday being the days for elementary and middle school walks during 3rd and 4th period, students only need to be in class until 1:08 p.m. On Thursday, however, seniors don’t need to come to school at all until 2 p.m. when graduation practice begins. 

Another concern with this new found schedule is the lack of structure in place for seniors on their final days. With the removal of finals and additional regular course work to be able to complete, students may start to feel unmotivated or unenergetic from the normal school environment. With these new emotions they can lead to a decrease in student engagement, making the last week feel more like a waste of time than a proper goodbye. 

With seniors having to tough it out for one more week, they should take this time to cherish the memories they had with their friends who they won’t see in college and teachers that they will miss. They can also use this week to go around and collect signatures and notes for their yearbooks that they can look back on and enjoy.