Administration Establishes New Academic Calendar
Principal Tom Hassan released the 2015-2016 Academic Calendar on Monday, Jan. 12 through a schoolwide email which listed the notable changes that were made from the 2014-2015 calendar. In the email, Hassan reported that the 2015 Thanksgiving Break will be longer than this year’s, due to the earlier date of the Labor Day holiday. In addition, he noted that the number of Saturday classes will remain the same as the current school year.
To many, the calendar creating process is a mystery; most students and faculty are clueless about the “who,” “when” and “how” involved in the process. Director of Studies and Clerk of Trustees Laura Marshall is the woman behind the scenes along with Principal Tom Hassan. As a duo, they consider significant dates and how they impact the schedule. “The very first thing that happens is we look at the [dates] of the federal holidays [such as] Labor Day and Thanksgiving. Then the next step is to look at E/a days which are determined by a league of schools,” Marshall said.
The next few steps involve rigorous strategizing of the number of format meetings, the amount of fat blocks and the number of auxiliaries. Not only does the duo of Hassan and Marshall take into account these numbers, they also take into consideration the dates of the trustee meetings. “After [the figuring out of holiday and athletic dates,] it’s really about where the trustee meetings fall and then we start counting how we fit in at least 35 format meetings per class,” Marshall added.
The 2015-2016 calendar underwent the long and arduous process, and after a long six months of deliberation and scheduling, it was finally established after being checked by several members of the Exeter community, including Dean of Students Melissa Mischke and Rev. Robert Thompson. “We have a draft calendar, we share it with key administrators to make sure we haven’t missed anything or created any problems,” Hassan said. “I then send it out to the community in January each year.”
After students received the email and new calendar, many noticed the elongated Thanksgiving break and the same amount of Saturday classes; however, there were also several other changes. First, the date of the graduation for the class of 2016 and the end of spring term are both two days earlier than usual. In addition, the start of Thanksgiving break is now two days after last year’s, which fell on Nov. 22.
Although students may view this longer break as a clear benefit, Marshall noted differently.
“I think for some students [the longer break] is a week when you find yourself at home but the holiday is over and your parents are at work. Your friends may be back in school as well, so it may feel lonely,” she said. “I think some students may prefer to be in school that week, so I do believe that students and faculty have different feelings about having that week off.”
However, some students feel that despite this, the longer Thanksgiving break will raise benefits to accommodate students. Lower Brandon Liu predicted that both his international and domestic friends will appreciate the longer Thanksgiving break. “The longer Thanksgiving break is definitely huge for U.S. students. I know that a lot of my friends that live internationally could not go home this past Thanksgiving due to how short the break was, so this hopefully will change that.”
Not only does it affect the international students, but it also enables prospective college applicants to work on applications and visit colleges. “The longer Thanksgiving break is interesting, but I do like it as there will be more of a chance to work on college applications, and also have the time to relax,” upper Hiroyuki Kuwana said.
Some teachers have expressed relief when hearing about the change of length for this year’s Thanksgiving break. According to English instructor Johnny Griffith the Thanksgiving break in 2014 was a difficult time for most teachers in regards to getting grades and comments submitted. “This past year’s Thanksgiving break was brutal. I spent most of it catching up on grading and then writing my comments, and it felt very compacted,” he said. “Many seemed to feel like there really was no break. By the time comments were finished, students were arriving to begin the winter term.” Due to this experience, Mr. Griffith is looking forward to the elongated break.
Along with the longer Thanksgiving break, this new schedule proposes the same number of Saturday classes as the 2014-2015 calendar. Only four years ago, in the 2010-2011 school year, there were 21 Saturday classes. That summer, Marshall and Hassan decided to greatly truncate the amount; since then, there have been 11, 10, 6, 9 and 9 each year, respectively.
English instructor Lark Hammond noted that this small number of Saturday classes was necessary for the students to rejuvenate themselves after a long week of classes. “I think that [what] is also important for students, in terms of their rest, is their ability to participate in off-campus events on weekends, including being rested and ready for sports without having to worry about homework and classes—or missing classes.”
With this idea of rejuvenating in mind, students were relieved to find out that the low number of Saturday classes would continue. “I am okay with keeping the same number of Saturday classes as this year,” Liu said. “Of course, I would not mind having that reduced, but I'm just glad that we aren't adding any more.”
Now that these changes in the new calendar are finalized, Marshall looks ahead towards the calendars of the years to come. Each year brings a different task, with the holiday, athletic and trustee dates changing yearly. Despite this, the team of Marshall and Hassan seem to pull off a fitting schedule which balances the academic portions with time for extracurricular activities such as breaks year after year. “I think it is important to realize that the calendar is not set in stone and that the calendar changes from year to year,” Marshall added. “At the same time, we make sure to maintain the integrity of our academics by ensuring that we have a minimum number of class meeting times.”
The creation of the 2015-2016 calendar has been a long and winding process, with break dates needing to be set and classes requiring at least 35 meeting blocks; however, with it now completed, students and faculty can plan ahead for another successful school year.
Contributions from Jamie Cassidy