Paly votes for finals to be after winter break

The Palo Alto Unified School District’s Board of Education voted 5-0 this past January for a 2011-2012 school calendar that would move final exams to January, after winter break.

This decision comes after the Los Gatos-Saratoga High School District’s Board of Trustees moved final exams to a week before winter break.

The Palo Alto Board cited several reasons for moving exams back to January after having had finals in December for several years. Board President Melissa Baten-Caswell mentioned that many seniors also work on college applications in December.

“I think we need to have a structure that really works with college applications,” Caswell told The Paly Voice online newspaper.

Palo Alto senior and School Board Representative Pierre Bourbonnais also said that finals before winter break hurt seniors.

“In the end, I’m not sure if the calendar would reduce stress or simply shift it,” Bourbonnais told the Voice. “I feel like we’re trying to cram everything into first semester.”

On the Saratoga High front, assistant principal Brian Safine disagreed with Palo Alto High’s decision. Safine said Palo Alto’s reasoning that finals before winter break would hurt seniors applying to colleges was not entirely true. The window for writing the essay, a core part of the application, was far longer then Palo Alto was implying, Safine said.

“For example, the UCs have their essay topic online far before December,” Safine said. “A student could start a draft of next year’s essay now.”

Safine also said that most private colleges expect applications for early decision and action by Nov. 1, which is relatively far away from the middle of December date for finals.

“I would still argue that giving students the chance to go on vacation without academics hanging over their head is much more reasonable,” Safine said.
Seniors had different views on the topic. Senior Patrick Soung said that next year’s finals schedule will not hurt seniors applying to colleges.

“If I told you something was due in two weeks instead of in three weeks, you’d probably feel rushed,” Soung said. “But if I originally told you it was due in two weeks, I think you’d just accept it and move on.”

Senior Garrick Chan said having finals before break would make life harder for the seniors.

“It depends on where they apply to,” Chan said. “Still, it might be tough because it’s hard to do two important things like these at the same time.”