As cliche as it might be, times change, and things easily come and go. And to further contribute to this cliche, the students and teachers of Taft High School face something that could change the way that the rest of the school year is structured.
Over the summer, the 192nd Democratic National Convention took place, where the Democratic party unified to watch both the candidates for President and Vice President officially become nominated. Although this event normally takes place sometime around Aug. 10, the DNC began later than expected.
For comparison, the 2020 convention took place from Monday, Aug. 17, to Thursday, Aug. 20. This year, it took place from Monday, Aug. 19, to Thursday, Aug. 22. Along with this, the typical start of the year at Taft occurs on Monday, Aug. 21, even though the first day of the 2024 school year was Monday, Aug. 26.
The previous information has now presented a new fact, this being that the Taft schedule has been shifted by an entire week because of the Democratic National Convention. In the 2025 school year it will start on Aug. 18th, a whole eight days earlier than what it was this year.
Principal Ryan Glowacz told his opinion on the matter, “It doesn’t give you that full break that you need on winter break because you still have to think about schoolwork. It’s a huge obstacle that you have to hop over after a two week break. It’s maybe a couple school days, but it’s a month in real time.”
When he was asked about deadlines being delayed or pushed back he responded, “Oh yeah, the main one being the grade posting deadline, they have to be entered by Jan. 16, but without the convention it would’ve been on Dec. 19. Being pushed a whole month back” this shows the delay of grades and when to be posted affects students and teachers alike.
This has put a massive strain on students and how they go about things, same thing with teachers, making students worry about schoolwork about the usually carefree winter break. This has also affected the three day late policy at Taft, if you get assigned an assignment on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday, it leaks into your break and you have to think about it.
Javier Oviedo, a junior at Taft, had a couple comments on the situation, “I had to pay more attention to my grades, it made me really stressed.” When asked about who it affected he said, “Everyone, they hate it, it could’ve been prevented.”
Taft Anthropology teacher Sara Burdeaux had some conflicting thoughts on the situation, “I think the schedule change allows teachers and students more flexibility when ending and transitioning into new units to better determine which grades will go into semester one vs. semester two grade reports.”
Fortunately, it has been discovered that the district is making plans to only have this schedule change be temporary. They plan on ending 2025 a week later than normal, and then beginning the 2026 school year on the right track by having it start a week earlier. This effectively refixes the schedule change at Taft.
