May 13th, 2019

By Levi Livengood

​For the first time in years, the school year here at Independence will end after Memorial Day, leaving the last week of school with only three days filled with long periods and long tests for the freshmen, sophomores, and juniors. Seniors will leave the week before, just as usual, but still a week later than last year. 

School did start a few days later, accounting for some of the extra time this year, but the thing to consider is that already it looks like next year school will end another week later, going into June. On the other hand, the school is giving students a week-long break during the long stretch between Labor Day and the holidays.   

All things considered, students generally go through the same amount of school days every year, Independence included, but when school stretches into summer, it gets more and more grueling. Already by this time last year, Seniors would be going into their last week of school, but instead they will be in for another week. Not too mention, but Spring Break has been moved around especially this year, taking place quite a bit later than last year, though this does spare students a whole week to wait before the end of school. 

Regardless, the length of the school year has not changed. There are still just about as many hours and days of school as there have been for years. And perhaps the new October Break, assuming that it comes, will prove to be refreshing at a point in the school year where previous years had previously been very exhausting.