For the official end-of-year schedule, click here.

By Melinda Song
<[email protected]>

At the first rumor of inclement weather, students wait in eager anticipation for their home phones to ring with a call from Carmel Clay Schools. This winter, phones rang for this reason five times. According to Assistant Principal Doug Bird, snow days have created scheduling problems.

“It’s a state requirement that we have 180 days of school,” Bird said. “So by having the (five) snow days, that means we used the two extra days that we had scheduled into the calendar and now we need to make three up.”
As a result, students must now attend school on May 2, a date originally scheduled as a Flex Day, and May 26 and 27, extending the school year by two days.

AP Planning Affected
However, even with the weather that hit states across the nation this winter, national AP exams are still scheduled as normal. This fact has raised concerns among some students that those enrolled in AP classes may be inadequately prepared for their exams.

Senior Kevin Vanneman, who is in AP Calculus AB, said losing two days of instructional time is an issue for him.

“Everything has to be pushed up,” he said. “So lessons that had to be learned in a week have to be learned before intended to, so it’s going to be hard to learn all that information before the (national) test comes up.”

Bird, however, said major concern about insufficient AP preparation is not necessary at CHS.

“(Teachers’) instructional time has been cut off a little bit,” he said. “(The loss) probably has the biggest impact on AP classes. Fortunately, those are the highest achieving students, and those students do a really good job of taking a look at what they need to do in order to be prepared for those tests. So I would anticipate, especially since we have two months since AP tests, our students and teachers will do a good job of compensating and making sure we’re prepared as best as we can.”

Such is the case for Jacinda Sohalski, who teaches AP Calculus AB and  has adjusted her class’s schedule  in order to reduce the number of review days and cancel a previously scheduled midterm.

“As far as the AP class goes, we were on schedule enough, (AP Calculus AB teacher Peter) Beck and I have both sat down and kind of laid (the schedule) out,” she said. “We think we’re going to be fine as far as getting all the material in. Obviously, a few extra days of review wouldn’t have hurt anybody. At least we’ll be able to cover everything we need to cover.”

She also said that the responsibility for review will now fall more heavily on students, not teachers.

Post-prom Scheduling and Graduation
In addition, attending school on the Monday after prom, May 2, potentially affects the plans of some juniors and seniors. Vanneman, however, said he isn’t too concerned.

“Maybe prom won’t be as fun because we have to go back to school,” he said.

Other changes that impact seniors during the last weeks of the school year include changes to graduation. According to Bird, graduation is scheduled for May 26, and the administration has no intentions to reschedule the ceremony due to both the Pepsi Coliseum’s availability and this school’s schedule.

“Ideally, (the administration) would love to finish school on Thursday or Friday, and then have graduation that Sunday. That would be fantastic. That’s what we would prefer,” he said. “This year, just the way the calendar fell, we needed to schedule graduation during the week.”

Bird also added that, as of now, seniors will have to come back after graduation to finish taking final exams. Though seniors could finish the school year early last year, the State Department of Education’s 180-day mandate for all public school students annuls this option.

Schedule Still in Flux
The adjusted schedule for final exams is still being drawn up, according to Bird, and will be made available to students before spring break.

“Finals will be pushed back,” he said.

The school’s decision to remove half days from the schedule is in response to a new state policy.

“The state has taken a look at not just here at Carmel Clay schools but at schedules throughout the state and has emphasized the importance of all students attending school for 180 days,” he said. “Prior to last year, we were of the mindset of being able to add up those half days to count a pair as one. By doing that, (the number of days) would essentially add up to 182. The state no longer allows us to do that, so in order to have that buffer in there, which we didn’t have last year—that’s why we went to having a full day on Thursday, the last day for (students) and Friday, the last day for staff.”

As far as next year, Bird said the schedule will most likely remain the same, with 182 instructional days scheduled, despite the district’s experience with many instances of weather-related cancellations.

“Part of the school calendar is tied in with the teacher contract, and that contract prescribes how many days the school district can schedule as instructional days,” he said.

Sohalski said though she thought all five snow days were justified for this area, adding more days into next year’s calendar is not a necessary precaution.

She said, “This year has just been odd.”