On February 15, Mr. Prange met with Student Government in the SHS library to discuss the possible changes to finals that would be put into effect for the 2018-2019 school year. These changes are still being altered, but the general guidelines have been set and discussed with both teachers and students. “Some things do still have to be worked out with teachers,” said Prange. The general principle is that the 4 days of testing would be condensed into 2 days. One purple and one white with four classes each day.

Don’t panic, it’s not as bad as it sounds. This year, finals are worth 20% of your semester grade combined with 40% from each 9 weeks. In the new finals schedule the only classes that have a final worth 20% of your grade would be the Level 2, 3, or 4 classes (refer to page 34 in your handbook for which classes are listed). Other classes (Level 1, any class that isn’t listed) could have a culminating event of some kind, i.e. a project, test, or performance, but they would not be required to have a large final exam that could make or break your grade. This grade would simply tack on to the end of the nine weeks like any other test or classwork or project.

For students with who may have 4 weighted class finals in a day, they may opt to move one test to the other day. For example, say a student had Advanced Algebra 2, AP World History, Honors English and Honors Biology, the student could move one of those tests to the other day (like to a study hall) so it wouldn’t be four 20%-of-the-final-grade-finals in a day.

None of these changes have been set in stone, as has been said by Mr. Prange, but this is definitely in the cards for next year. “If we had to go with something today, that’s what we’d go with, but nothing is permanent yet. Handbooks have to get started before this school year is over, so a decision will be made before then.”