The official calendar for the 25-26 school year has recently been uploaded to FUSD’s website, announcing some of the biggest changes since the District’s decision to move the start of the year forward to allow the first semester to end before break. Changes to the calendar are infrequent, according to Ms. McCauley. “There’s only a certain number of things that the union and the district can discuss together every time we have negotiations,” she explains. “So we’d have to talk about the calendar instead of something else. This change has been something that I have expected for a long time. It’s just been a matter of waiting for them to have space in the conversations to talk about it.”
The most noticeable change is the shift of spring break from April to the third week of March, a decision that has received mixed responses from teachers and students. The purpose of the change is to standardize the break. For the last couple of years, spring break has been scheduled to coincide with Easter and Good Friday, causing the dates to change between late March and April. Ms. McCauley says teachers “have been pushing for the change for a few years now. A lot of people feel that the end of the year is very rushed because you have spring break, AP testing, and finals week one after the other.” Indeed, teachers view this as a positive adjustment. “There will be more time in between for students to review,” recounts Mr. Choi, a chemistry teacher. “What happens every year with AP Chem is that there’s only one week between spring break and APs, so everyone forgets everything.”
However, many students — especially those in AP classes — say they will miss the week of break in April. “Having spring break in April lets us study for the AP and final exams on our own,” argued Namyaa Thakkar (11). “I think having it then is more beneficial.” This sentiment is echoed by many students, including Sakhi Jinda (11)l: “By then, a lot of my teachers are done teaching the material and I can begin preparing for my AP tests. ” Some students mentioned that they may miss more days of school near AP testing to make up for the change.
Not all students are opposed to the early break. Without the pressure of upcoming AP tests, students say they will likely go on more vacations. As Pooja Suresh Kumar (11) points out, “It’s a bit closer to ski week like what a lot of other schools have. I think people will be more inclined to go out on vacations because there’s more of a gap between then and AP testing.”
Another unusual change is that the school year will end on a Tuesday instead of a Friday. California law requires schools to have 180 instructional days, and additional non-school days have caused the last day of school to land on a Tuesday. According to Ms. McCauley, “There was actually quite a bit of discussion about that because it makes things weird for finals.” If finals were moved to Friday, Monday, and Tuesday, teachers worry that some students would gain an unfair advantage by having an additional weekend to study. However, if finals remain on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, there are concerns that students will not attend the week after finals. There are ongoing discussions about having three finals per day rather than two, the downside being the added stress for students. Regardless of the final decision, changes to the second-semester finals schedule can be expected.
Other minor changes include a shift in staff development days and teacher work days, and the four-day weekend in February. Thanksgiving break, now renamed Fall Recess, has also been extended by 2 days, making it a week-long break for both students and staff, with a day of parent conferences moved to October. A full-day of conferences will replace traditional evening conferences.
While the effects of these changes have yet to be seen, students can certainly expect a different school-year experience.
