Seniors at Chapel Hill High School had the opportunity to work on college applications, attend a college visit, participate in job shadowing, or engage in service learning opportunities Wednesday, October 16 in place of attending school.
This option was due to the fact that sophomores and juniors took the PSAT or PreACT on October 16.
Principal Charles Blanchard said he offered this option in a previous district, and students found it beneficial.
“The seniors found it very helpful at that time of year with college applications being due,” he said. “It was also a much better use of time for them.”
Senior Amit Parikh said he chose to sit in on a class and take a tour of Duke University during his day off.
“Since our day off didn’t coincide with Duke’s fall break, I was able to interact with a lot of current Duke students who gave me great information about student and academic life,” he said. “It was a great opportunity that wouldn’t have been possible on a summer tour.”
Senior Lauren Johnson said the day off was a great time for her to work on her college applications.
“It was the day before early action deadlines for colleges, so I spent the whole time pretty much at home working on my Common App and my supplementals,” she said.
Senior Lizzy Spores also chose to spend the day working on her applications.
“I slept in and did my supplementals, and then I went to my Leaders Club meeting,” she said.
Although this day off for seniors did detract from class time, calculus teacher Keith Cooper said there really wasn’t a way around it.
“Obviously, it meant I lost a day of class, which is never good in a packed AP curriculum, but there is really not much that could be done to avoid it,” he said. “The biggest impact for me in that regard was the fact that my fifth and seventh periods are mostly seniors, so we lost class time on that day.”
History teacher Kathryn Murchison said the day off for seniors didn’t have much of a negative impact on her classes.
“Because we knew in advance, we were able to plan around it,” she said. “The seniors who are in multi-level classes also knew in advance and talked to me ahead of time, so it wasn’t a really big issue.”
AP Comparative Government and Civics teacher Matthew North also said the day off from seniors did not negatively impact his classes, as his afternoon classes do not have seniors in them.
“My classes with seniors were all during the time I was proctoring the exam, so them not being in school would not have impacted me,” he said. “Because I usually build extra days into my schedule in case of situations like this, it wasn’t a big issue.”
