Changes in the Calendar: For Better or Worse?

By: Craig McPherson

This coming school year will see some significant changes for students. One of the biggest would be in their schedules with a brand new calendar. While there are a number of holidays that students now get days off for, such as Eid al-Fitr, which is important to Islamic culture, as well as the Wednesday after Memorial Day. However, to make up for these no longer being school days, the new calendar makes certain days of the year that otherwise would’ve been days off school days. These would include the days of the week in November that students previously got as a vacation. But why is this change happening, and how do students feel about these changes? 

The main reason that the school calendar is seeing any of these changes at all would be because of the wants of certain people in the community. Some that are of certain religions or nationalities have advocated for having school closed for certain holidays that school would have still been opened on previously. However, it is required by state law that the school year is composed of at least one hundred and eighty school days. In order to compensate for these new holidays away from school, the board has had to make additional changes so that the quote can still be maintained. This includes the first day of school being earlier, and the last day of school being later. As well as, mentioned before, the removal of the week off in November. 

When asked about these changes, Junior Sophia Verrios said, “I think they are for the worst, because they take away our fall break. Instead we get random holidays. These are breaks that students and teachers need. They won’t make summer break longer or anything like that either.” She feels that both students and staff of the school depend on longer breaks like the one we previously had in November for the sake of their well being. She also feels that the individual days off for other holidays do not make up for this. 

In conclusion though, one may disagree with these sentiments. Some may think that these changes are for the better, and prefer having more, separate days off. Whether or not these changes are for better or worse depends on the personal preferences of the individual.