For the 2020-2021 school year the board decided that there will be no finals. In place of finals a recovery week will take place. 

Jennifer Hester, the director of curriculum, contributed to the decision along with other board members and school officials.

“The decision was made collaboratively by the members of the administration and teacher committees,” Hester said. “These groups weighed the benefits and potential challenges for all students in making the decision.”

For Hester, she supports the decision and feels that students should just focus on finishing strong. 

This allows students who need more time to demonstrate their learning to complete assignments with more support from their teachers and the entire HF teaching staff,” said Hester.”

According to Principal Jerry Lee Anderson, “a lot of thought went into that question, we decided it would be better to have our students focus on the here now, focus on demonstrating proficiency in their subject areas right now.”

The board and school administration sympathizes with the students and they realize that it has been a hard year for students.

“We didn’t want to stress [students], but we still wanted to hold them accountable for learning,” said Anderson. “We figured this will give you a chance to do your very best in this fourth quarter to bring up your grades.” 

For the students that don’t need to participate in recovery week, their last day of school will be Friday, May 21. Recovery week is May 24-27.

“All students participate in recovery, but not necessarily recovery week. We’ve asked teachers starting right now to give them an opportunity to relearn then reassess no matter what your grade is,” said Anderson.

The teachers have also been asked to write out a list of assignments students need to pass their class, which will be given to families on Friday, May 14.

According to Anderson, students who haven’t passed the class by May 21 are the students that must participate in recovery week. 

While some might not agree with the decision of no finals, a majority of the teachers and community members were on board with the school’s plan. 

“ Students had an opportunity to show that they can take finals mid-year. I think [students are]going to be okay not doing finals as long as they continue to learn to your best of your ability the rest of the semester. Hopefully next year we’ll be back to normal and be able to take finals again.” 

Concluding the 2020-2021 school year students did their best considering the circumstances. 

“ Great learning happened this year; it just wasn’t traditional!”