For the past few years, the finals week schedule has always included half days. This year, however, students will have a four day week with full school hours. Finals week starts on Monday, December 18 and ends Thursday, December 21. The state now requires schools to meet a certain number of minutes instead of days. Associate principal Amby Clinkscale said  that in order to fulfill the requirements, half days are not an option.

“The reason we’re not doing half days for finals this year has to do with our delayed start to Hurricane Harvey,” Clinkscale said.

The loss of instructional minutes on the late start left the administration with no choice other than to create a new schedule with full days, not half.

“Now we have to have more minutes seated in class during finals than what we have in the past,” Clinkscale said. “My understanding is in the spring though we should be able to have a regular spring final exam schedule with those half days.”