Fairfax County Public Schools has made a new policy where if we miss more than five days of school, the school board has the option of starting the 2016-2017 in late August. As a student, I am not a fan of this new policy at all. I want my school year to start the Tuesday after Labor Day like usual. It is what most of FCPS is used to anyways so why ruin a tradition?  It appears that most FCHS students are in agreement on this situation.

“I would rather have all of August off so I could have a longer summer. Even though we would have days off during the year classes would have to move more quickly to cover all of the material,” Conley Ku (9) said.

“I think it is ridiculous and I think they should either add school days to the end of the year or they should take away half days and three day weekends. I think Fairfax County needs to do a better job planning these scenarios out by giving us more snow days because last year we used almost all our snow days and we had thirteen. Instead of planning these out this year, they jumped ahead and went on the easy route instead of planning things out. So now they think the easiest way out is to take away part of our summer break. That will be an awful idea because we all love a long summer break,” said Noah Sedmak (10).

“Well, I feel like they shouldn’t do that because we have to get up early every day before school and it physically drains you…like you’re so tired by the end of the year. You also need a long summer break to get you mentally ready for the next school year. If Fairfax County doesn’t do this, the students will not enjoy school.  It will also affect their grades negatively,” said Caleb Sedmak (10).

Overall, the students I talked to weren’t a fan of this policy for the upcoming school year. As a student, I don’t want part of my summer cut out for extra school days.  It just isn’t fair to be honest. To me, it shouldn’t happen—we should just start as usual.

Despite qualifying for waiver, FCPS School Board votes NOT to start school before Labor Day in 2016-2017, but will consider doing so in 2017-2018.