For the students of Oak Park and River Forest High School, the weeks prior to winter break have been historically characterized by the intense studying for final exams. For more than a decade, finals have taken place in the last three days before the start of winter break. Recently, however, the administration proposed a change.
Under the proposal, the end of semester one would come in January, after winter break, to create two semesters of even length. Both semesters would be 88 days long, balancing the divide some students are currently experiencing in their semester-long classes.
But those changes are off the table–at least for now. On Jan. 23, Executive Director of Communications Karin Sullivan sent out an email to students and staff pronouncing the proposal denied as of the upcoming school year.
“As discussions about the calendar have unfolded, we want to take more time to gather feedback and explore new options. It has simply become too late in the process to change next year’s calendar,” Sullivan wrote. “Therefore, the 2024-2025 school calendar will remain as already approved. We will work to maximize instructional time during first semester by making only internal adjustments, such as moving various assemblies to second semester.”
Still, the discussion is not over. The calendars for the 2025-2026 and 2026-2027 school years have not yet been finalized, and administration is still debating whether or not to incorporate the proposed change. At the Board of Education meeting on Jan. 25, Superintendent Greg Johnson affirmed that the decision to alter the calendar is being postponed until a later date, given student feedback and need for further research.
“We are not backing away from the challenges that caused us to bring this proposal to the board to begin with, and it is still very real possibility that we will bring a proposal forward for the 2025-2026 and 2026-2027 calendars that will recommend we shift the end of the semester to January as we proposed,” Johnson said. “But we have some work to do in the interim and at this point, no definitive timeline is set for when we’ll bring a new proposal forward.”
Per the approved 2024-2025 calendar, first semester finals are to occur on Dec. 18, 19 and 20 of 2024, with second semester beginning on Jan. 7, 2025. This will lead to first semester being 10 days shorter than second semester, which some are emphasizing limits the amount of instruction received by students taking semester-long courses, such as Drivers Education and AP Government and Politics. This begs the question of how to rearrange the schedule to even out the length of the semesters.
“We have 107 classes that occur in the first semester,” said OPRF Principal Lynda Parker, who has been involved with the decision to adapt the calendar. Her concern is that with the current calendar, students who take these courses in the first semester are adversely impacted by the uneven number of instructional days. “Just a difference of experience depending on the luck of the draw of which semester you get placed in for the same course…it just impacts individuals differently,” she said.
Parker held two informational forums on Jan. 10 in the Little Theater to gather students’ opinions and concerns regarding the proposed schedule change. Alongside her Thursday lunchtime discussions with students, Parker has been incorporating student voices in creating next year’s calendar.
“I’m looking to make sure that there’s some equity in the length of our semesters, and this seemed to be a reasonable way to accomplish that. We don’t want to close ourselves off to believing how we have this now is the only way,” said Parker.
The forum proved successful in gauging student opinion, allowing students to speak up on their perspectives. Some students argued against the placement of first-semester finals in the proposed calendar, which would be held in the third week of January, students’ second week back at school, rather than in the last week of December before break.
Many students worried that this change would extend the preexisting stress correlated with finals over winter break, a time when students are meant to be relieved of school. Similarly, some worried that they would forget some of the material over the course of the break, leading to a possible decrease in performance for first-semester finals.
One student who attended the meeting, junior Zoie Segbawu, expressed concern about having finals after the break, specifically in more rigorous and fast-paced classes. “I know that the trend of general opinion is that people are worried about how we’re studying so fast…trying to learn all this information and then go on break and then come back and take a test,” said Segbawu. “A lot of people want to get it over with and they want to enjoy their break and start new.”
Another student who attended the meeting, junior Sonja Emerson, felt conflicted about whether or not the proposed calendar would be beneficial. “I’m not happy about it but I don’t know that there’s really a better option if they want to even out the semesters,” Emerson offered. “I think most people are really upset about it… The stress is still going to be there if we don’t have a clean break between semesters and I don’t know that the administration fully understands that.”
With the existing calendar, the semesters will continue to be disproportionate. Questions surrounding how to rearrange the school year to accommodate such are still prominent in administrative discussions, and many hope that soon, a proposal will be given that meets the needs and wants of both students and staff.
Until then, opponents of the change will be glad to hear that they can enjoy their winter break next year without the recurring stress of finals, given that the 2024-2025 calendar will follow the one OPRF has grown accustomed to.
