At many schools across the suburbs of Chicago, it’s normal for seniors to get out of school earlier than the rest of the students. Schools nearby such as Warren and Mundelein have already started their summers for seniors.
At LFHS, the seniors only get one less day of class compared to the rest of the students. The rest of the students do have another week of finals after the seniors are done, but for the second semester, many classes don’t have a final or they have an easier project.
Many seniors have been dealing with “senioritis” for nearly the entire semester and were shocked to hear that nearby seniors have already ended school.
“It’s annoying. I have heard seniors from other schools have started their summers and I’m here at school for another two weeks,” senior Frank Catalano said.
Dean Jonathan Silver says that a reason seniors end later is because LFHS starts later than other schools.
“Most other schools start at least one week earlier than us, so it is a tradeoff. If we were to have seniors get out at the same time as surrounding districts, summers would be cut short earlier in August,” Silver said.
In addition to ending later, the seniors’ last day falls on a block day, so they only have half of their classes. This means that students will have their other classes for the last time, not on the last day of school.
Many students get upset by this because they want to spend and enjoy their last day with all of their classmates and teachers, but ending on a block day restricts them from this opportunity.
“I’m upset that on the last day of school I don’t get to spend it with some of my classmates and teachers from other classes. If we ended on Scout day, it would feel a lot more special to be with everybody for the last time all together,” Catalano said.
Dean Laura Clegg says that this is because of how the school calendar ran before the school instituted block days.
“Prior to the schedule change when we just had an eight period day, seniors were always done on Wednesday. When we switched to block periods, Wednesday posed a problem since they wouldn’t get to be in their odd period classes. Therefore, they switched the seniors’ last day to Thursday,” Clegg said.
Clegg does agree, though, that ending on a Scout day would be better for seniors than ending on a block day.
“I do think that the seniors’ last day should be on a day where they can see all of their teachers. When I was a teacher, I also struggled with their last class being an 80 minute block period,” Clegg said.
It will be interesting to see if LFHS will make any changes to the end of the year schedule for seniors. In the meantime, seniors at LFHS remain at school until May 29.
