It’s hard to deny the beauty of a day off school. Parkway has been relatively generous this year, sprinkling late start/early release combinations into the calendar. These back-to-back partial school days include a day with a modified early release schedule follow by a day using the typical late start schedule. While this time off is widely appreciated by students and teachers, it seems to some slightly illogical to not simply take one full day off.
One complaint some students have about early release days is that the school day is still too long.
“I don’t think early release is early enough for us to do anything drastically different than regular release,” said senior Jacob Kanter. “I definitely prefer late start days. The ideal late day for me would start at 10:00am so I’d have time for homework and sleeping in.”
Others prefer not to wake up at the last minute so that they can enjoy an unusually leisurely morning before classes.
“I look forward to waking up later than normal (which is 5:30 with early band) and going to Bread Co. with my sister for breakfast,” said junior
Rachel Berwald.
While Berwald values this extra time in the morning, she prefers the early release days.
“I’ll go home and just relax for a bit. It’s nice since I don’t have to rush into doing homework or after school things.”
Junior Annika Eckenrode shared this sentiment and the love for Bread Co.
“I would rather have an early release day than a late start because it’s nice getting out of school earlier and having extra free time the rest of the day,” Eckenrode said. “After school on early release days I usually eat lunch at bread co.”
There is one point that Kanter, Berwald, and Eckenrode could all agree on: having one full day off of school would be preferable to having two half days.
“I would prefer a full day off, because it’s a lot more relaxing and easier to have a three day weekend than to just have two shorter days,” Eckenrode said.
While late start days can provide an opportunity for sleeping in and getting ahead, they still require rolling out of bed on a weekday morning. In the case of the early release days, the shortened day can feel somewhat similar to a regular day already ends relatively early in the afternoon. Additionally, there is the inevitable confusion over shortened class periods and irregular schedules.
However, the district must meet requirements for the number of school days and the amount of time spent in the classroom each year. Regardless of the amount of time off and when it occurs, students and teachers alike eagerly anticipate any opportunity for a break in the school routine.
