With the semester ending, there will be a new schedule for final days this year.

Instead of finals days being chosen by each individual teacher, Hays High School will have two set finals days on Wednesday, Dec. 20 for Gold Day finals and on Thursday, Dec. 21 for Maroon Day finals, and then, on the last day of the semester on Friday, Dec. 22, there will be an opportunity for students who missed finals or who need to finish any final work to do so. On the last three days of the semester, there will also be no passing to other classes so that the halls will remain quiet.

“Our goal for the new finals schedule was to create an atmosphere of focus and intentionality to close out the semester,” principal Shawn Henderson said. “Much like a college campus, we want our students to engage with their studies all the way through the last day of learning. The semester finals provide a meaningful culminating activity for all classes. The specifics of those culminating activities will be different for each class, but the focus will be uniform.”

That means that teachers have the ability to determine what the final looks like for each of their classes, whether it is a semester exam, a unit test, a final project or another culminating activity. For example, math teacher Jerrett Pfannenstiel’s G4 Data Analysis class will be doing an experiment for their final project.

On the Friday of finals week, both Gold and Maroon classes will be scheduled, but shortened, so that students can finish any remaining work, if needed, but if they are done with their work, they do not have to come to school.

“The school will be providing a Friday combined schedule for those students who need to get themselves in a position to BOOST or to pass the course without the need for BOOST,” Henderson said. “Students would be wise to take advantage of these times, so they can avoid summer school or repeating a class. We feel this new finals schedule will also help accommodate those opportunities for students.”