LFHS has always prioritized its students’ academic success. With numerous counselors, staff, and resources at students’ disposal, academics are something that the school holds in high regard.
However, for the upcoming 2025-26 school year, LFHS is revisiting old habits that may challenge students’ academic performance: scheduling finals after winter break.
The main reason for this decision can be attributed to construction that is scheduled to begin in March 2025 and continue into late summer. Because of this, finals will now take place after winter break, and LFHS will start and end a week later than usual.
In the past, LFHS has only been able to schedule finals before break because of unbalanced semesters— where the first semester is shorter than the second— and a mid to late August start. Now, with the referendum construction carrying into August, finals after break and a later start date are necessary to allow students to learn the full material in each class and to create more balanced semesters.
As the 2025-26 school calendar is finalized, students have begun to question whether construction should take precedence over their education. In a survey of more than 700 junior, sophomore, and freshman students at LFHS, the vast majority— 93.9%— believe that construction is not a valid reason for finals to be moved.
The same survey reported that 98.4% of students prefer finals to be before winter break. Freshman Alena Vora shares her opinion on why students feel this way.
“Having finals after winter break is problematic because it disrupts students’ momentum and focus, especially since it’s difficult to retain material you haven’t studied in weeks,” Vora said. “The break should be a time for kids to relax and take a break from school, leaving them stress free. Now, students might have anxiety and struggle to fully enjoy their time off.”
Many current juniors will be applying to college next year. Some students are worried that their performance during finals could hurt their grades, in turn affecting whether or not colleges will accept them or revoke their acceptances— since most colleges require a first semester transcript. Junior Ellie Carter raises this concern.
“Having finals post-break is a tricky situation to navigate for some students because the scores of their tests can lead to colleges being unhappy with their grades,” Carter said.
Junior Dylan Cran is also considering how having later finals will affect his college application process.
“I’ll be a senior next year and I’m going to have to worry about applying to college. Having finals later will really add to the pressure of getting good grades,” Cran said.
Although underclassmen don’t have college decisions breathing down their necks, they have other concerns. Sophomore Lila Silvers worries that her time off won’t really feel like a break.
“I think finals should stay before break because, with them being after, the whole time will be spent studying,” Silvers said.
Many students, like freshman Dru Shader, struggle to remember material from classes after not reviewing it for a couple weeks.
“This decision affects me personally because I have a hard time retaining information over long periods of time. Also, winter break is supposed to be stress-free but, if finals are after break, I will be studying and stressing over my tests,” Shader said.
On the other hand, Student Body President Kat Yakes, who attended the school board’s meeting regarding the school’s construction, provided her peers with some optimism.
“I know that a vast majority of juniors, sophomores, and freshmen are frustrated that there will be a change to the regular scheduling of finals week, disrupting what would be a peaceful break. However, the school has made it clear that students should feel no need to study during their holiday break and that there will be a designated time for them to get caught up again before the week of finals itself,” Yakes said.
Dean Frank Lesniak agrees with Yakes, adding that it’s up to the educators to really make it clear what the expectation is over break.
“We want to put students at ease as the break shouldn’t be a time for stress. We don’t want students studying for two weeks straight, especially since the final exam is not going to make or break their grade,” Lesniak said. “There’s also a week of school after break dedicated to solely studying so students’ time off can still be relaxing.”
As for the future of finals at LFHS, it looks uncertain.
“As a school, we need to decide whether to continue to have finals before, or after, break. As always, we will make the decision with a focus on what is best for LFHS,” said Lesniak.
The school board has posed three potential options for finals in the upcoming years, but only time will tell which choice becomes the new norm:
- The school year starts earlier / finals take place before break / balanced semesters
- The school year starts at same time as current / finals take place before break / unbalanced semesters
- The school year starts at same time as current / finals take place after break / balanced semesters
