Students feel that the school year start and end date should be changed in the years to come. But should the school calendar be adjusted so that the year begins and ends earlier, or changed to one that begins and ends later?
Beginning the school year early would negatively impact families who are still vacationing. “School should start later because families may still be on vacation, and it is inconvenient,” sophomore Vasilisa Berezhnaya said.
With a school year that begins later in September, summer would extend closer to fall. “I like the weather when it’s cooler, and it would be nice to have part of our break go into fall weather,” freshman Katelyn Cheng said.
The school year starting earlier and ending earlier would provide more benefits to students. “With the pools opening, typically during Memorial Day weekend, students are already getting ready for summer plans by the end of May,” sophomore Angie Tehrani said.
Families plan for vacations multiple months in advance according to the school calendar. When there is an addition of snow make-up days, students end up having to cram final tests to make-up for their absences when they leave for vacation before the school year ends. “It would be easier to extend the school year if we started and ended earlier because it wouldn’t interfere with everyone’s summer as much,” sophomore Kailyn King said.
Students also spend summer break break doing summer homework or reading assigned in addition to using this time to relax. “School should end earlier and start earlier because we do many activities and even work during summer, when we have already been pressured during the year,” Tehrani said.
The time to relax and spend time with family is crucial to students who stress during the school year, and students feel the limited time is often spent doing work for school. “We need to have time to rest in order to get ready for the upcoming school year so we need to have some time to be able to relax without having to worry about anything,” Tehrani said.
An early start to the school year, beginning in August would mean that students would be able to have an earlier start to summer. “I think it should start earlier because then we have more time for summer and nice, warm weather and then school can be more in the fall or winter,” King said.
Starting and ending the school year earlier is better for students who are over-stressed by the school year, and can use the summer to prepare for the new year. “I believe that the school year should start earlier in August because then most students are prepared to return, and in June, they are anxious to leave school earlier in the summer,” Berezhnaya said.
Therefore, an early start and early end to the school year is more beneficial to students and preferred, as opposed to a school year that starts in September and ends in mid-to-late June.
