As the end of the first semester approaches, students and staff at Saucon Valley HS received news of a new final exam schedule. In the past, the finals have been split into three days. If a student didn’t have a final for a class, they could come in late (or not at all, as the case may be). Finals would run until around 11 a.m., at which point students could choose whether to leave then or wait for the bus at 2:30 p.m.

This year, however, in addition to having up to two finals in one day, students will attend regular classes for the second half of the day.

With finals just around the corner, the new schedule is a popular topic in the hallways. Many students are eager to voice their opinions on the matter - mostly negative.

One senior said, “It sucks that they changed it from a system that was still working and allowed for the students to have a reprieve from work to a system in which the students are not allowed that reprieve and are instead forced into classes.”

Another student said, “All of us are stressed out enough, and they’ve taken away enough of our holiday breaks and such. They didn’t need to take away the small moments we get to rest and recover after finals.”

Teachers are also noting the general antipathy.

“Students are concerned about not having enough time to study in between final exams as per this new schedule,” one teacher said. “At-risk students often spend a number of hours with teachers between finals to study and to remediate in order to pass and sometimes graduate. Without that time, some students will be forced to repeat a class in order to graduate. Some of those kids threaten to drop out since they can’t remediate.”

One teacher also commented, “Many students are scheduled to work or to attend college classes during the times in which they are now required to attend classes, some for which they’ve already completed with the final exam. If nothing else, it would be great to have transparent communication about the reasoning for the change.”

While Saucon’s administration likely intended the additional class time to be a good thing, it appears that very few people are interpreting it that way. As of this time, administrators haven’t released a statement explaining the change.