Principal deems a work-free break essential for students, teachers

With the district calendar setting final exams before winter break this semester, principal Jeff Anderson hopes to give students and teachers a time to “get their batteries recharged.” In order to better help students relax during their two weeks off, Anderson has mandated teachers to avoid assigning homework over the break.

“I’m hoping people are going to respect that, because I think the teachers want to have just as much of a break as the students—to be able to go away and not think about stuff for a couple of weeks,” he said. “You get two weeks off and you’re not worried about coming back and getting ready for finals.”
Anderson said the new calendar creates some potential issues, such as a shorter first semester.

Despite these challenges, the calendar change still garnered a district-wide majority vote last winter.
According to Anderson, eliminating work over winter break is one of the ways the administrators can ease students’ stress and help them perform to the best of their abilities.

“When you think about a stressful situation like at Saratoga High, there are only certain things that the school can do to try to make your life as balanced as possible,” Anderson said. “[One] thing that we can do structurally is create a calendar where you get to hopefully go away for Christmas, come back and be ready for the second semester, because once we get back it’s full speed ahead.”

Some teachers agree that the new calendar—coupled with a homework-free vacation—will benefit the students in the long-run.

“For the most part, I like the idea of the kids finishing the semester before they go on a two-week break,” AP U.S. History and History in Film teacher Kim Anzalone said. “When they come back they have forgotten almost everything. It also puts a lot less stress on them and their families for the holidays.”

Students, too, support the projected two-and-a-half-week period of rest and recuperation. Junior Stephanie Chen affirms that having finals after the break does little to help students.

“Over winter break, you forget everything, and then once you come back it’s like, ‘Oh, I have to study for everything now.’” Chen said. “The reason we have finals before break is so we can have a nice break without anything, right?”

Anderson said the school offers students the freedom to build their own schedules and balance their lives. As the head of Saratoga High, however, he aims to make the students’ lives as painless as possible.

“The things that we can control as a school we’re trying to do, and one of them is setting up the calendar this way,” Anderson said. “We think that that’s the way that [students are] going to be the most able to do their best in their classes.”