Adams 12’s drastic change over the 2023-2024 schedule sparked chaos among students. More hours of school. No short Wednesdays. And most recently, a new finals schedule.
According to Ms. Sierra Hoover, Legacy’s assistant principal, the new school schedule invoked a district-wide change to high school finals.
Once initial ideas were discussed, each individual school created a schedule that made sense for their school. As a Legacy administration team, we drafted the schedule, then brought it to the department leaders of every department at Legacy for feedback before finalizing our plan.
— Ms. Hoover
For Legacy, administrators strived for better academic support opportunities and adequate testing time by integrating two academic supports into the morning and afternoon of two 7:40 to 3:10 days.
Mr. Rob Mariea, one of Legacy’s physics teachers, believes that few students will use the afternoon ASP. He suspects, “During the finals, they will go home. Then, they’ll come in the next day and ask questions that they studied the night before.” Moreover, Jolie Nguyen, a junior at Legacy, argues that the afternoon academic support for the second day is impractical. Thursday will be the last day of school, and ASP would not help.
Legacy also implemented a dedicated lunch break with the regular 4th, 5th, and 6th lunch periods. The separation between even and odd periods aims to merge these lunch periods with the lunch break, which helps scatter the Commons and ensure a longer rest. Students and staff reported last year’s finals schedule―which divided periods 1-4 and 5-8―caused one day to be heavier than the other. Ms. Hoover hopes that these even-odd days balance the workload and lessen the stress for students.
We had a similar plan drafted with only 1 academic support time each day and another draft with courses 1-4 and 5-8, but ultimately, we decided against those options.
— Ms. Hoover
Nguyen, for one, appreciates this benefit. Without the even-odd days, she explains, “I would have all my APs first and my regular classes last.”
However, another student, Riley Tran, feels lost in preparing for finals. She clarifies, “I felt like we had too many breaks. When we had the fall break, I thought that it was Thanksgiving.” Mr. Mariea also thinks that the new finals schedule “… seems like it just added confusion.”
Legacy’s mixed opinions of the new finals schedule continue to exemplify the impact of the 2023-2024 Adams 12 calendar. Like the new calendar, Ms. Hoover states, “The goal is to see how finals go this semester, and we will make adjustments, if necessary, as a result.”
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