“I’m excited to do some Christmas shopping and relax and hang out with my friends way more,” said sophomore Lucia Weyers. 

These are all things that Weyers is excited to do over winter break without having to think about final exams because, for the first time since 2019, students throughout Parkway will be taking their final exams before winter break. 

Senior Ben Southard believes that many students will be supportive of this change because it will let them relax more during break.

“I think break is going to be way better, because last year near the end I felt like I couldn’t enjoy it because I had tests coming up,” Southard said. 

Despite the student body’s overall excitement about this new schedule, some teachers are a little more hesitant about this change, according to English teacher Donna Vondera.

“I think the time crunch will be my least favorite part of having finals before break,” Vondera said. “It just feels very hectic, rushed, and stressful.”

Weyers agrees that this rushed feeling has not only been felt by teachers, but by students as well.

“I feel like specifically second quarter has gone by really quick,” Weyers said.“I don’t know if it’s because finals are before break, or if there’s a different reason, but it definitely felt like it’s going fast.”

This quick feeling of second quarter is most likely partially due to the four less school days built into the schedule during 2nd quarter. In the first quarter there were 44 days of school and in the second quarter there are only 40 days. Also the last 4 days of the semester are for finals, so in reality second quarter only has 36 days for regular classroom learning. 

Despite the time crunch, teachers do understand why students may see this new schedule as a less stressful option for exams, according to Vondera.

“I think students will be happier with this change. I think the preference for most students is to not have finals looming over the break, which I totally get,” Vondera said.

Junior Cheng Peng thinks this change will be good because it will give students a good point to check in and realize the school year is halfway over.

“Having winter break be like a dividing line between first and second semester is a good checkpoint for students to work towards,” Peng said. “It’s what they did for years and years before they changed it, so I think it’ll be good.”

Southard believes another positive effect of this change is that it will actually lead to students doing better on some of their final exams.

“I think people will do better because by putting a break between school and finals it made it hard to remember things for the exams,” Southard said. “This year we won’t have that break between, so I think people will do better.”

Another effect of this change that has been questioned by some students and teachers is if kids will have enough time to study and prepare for finals this year, but according to Peng this probably won’t be a big issue.

“I guess there will be a little less time to finish assignments and study, but also I never really used winter break time to study, so I’ll probably study about the same amount I usually do,” Peng said.

Having finals before winter break will also avoid the issues that the district ran into last year after break when finals had to be altered due to a high number of snow days canceling school for multiple days after break. South ended up making these finals, so they were “hold harmless”, which meant no matter what score you got on your final, your class grade could not go down. This year, South has had one snow day so far, but its effect on the schedule was minimal because students only lost one purple day.

Weyers said she is grateful snow days won’t be an issue this year, because she felt like it left many freshmen last year feeling unprepared for future finals.

“I feel like we didn’t get the experience with finals that we needed,” Weyers said. “Now I feel like a lot of the sophomores who had that as their first time taking finals don’t take them as seriously as we should.”

As the countdown to winter break begins for many students, they’re ready to be done with finals and get to the fun, according to Weyers.

“2 weeks with literally no school sounds great, I can’t wait,” Weyers said.