Shorewood High School cancels final exams to prioritize mental and physical health of students and allow them to catch up on schoolwork

Shorewood High School has canceled its first-semester final exams.

The decision was made because of the number of students who were out sick or quarantined due to the surge in cases of the omicron variant of COVID-19, as well as concerns about students starting to fall behind, according to Principal Tim Kenney..

"We just talked through from the lens of, logistically, what is our assessment week going to look like when we could very well have 200, 300 kids who are not in school and what that would mean in terms of the sheer quantity of makeups that we would have to try to do," Kenney said in a Jan. 20 phone interview.

"Why would we move forward with kids who are genuinely laid up sick for several days falling way behind, and then we're going to assess them on stuff that they weren't able to do," he added. "This just isn't good for our students. It's also not good for my staff, but in particular, it's really not good for the students to put them in this kind of position.

"I said to the students and the staff: 'I'm 100% in agreement education is a huge priority. It's incredibly important. But there's nothing more important than your own physical and mental health. If you're not well, the education just isn't going to happen for you. So we need to make sure that remains our top priority. My staff is 100% in agreement, like that's the way we need to do this for our students. So that's what we're doing."

More: GOP lawmakers advance bill barring schools from excluding students based on vaccine status

More: Looking for a consistent school response to the omicron surge? You won't find it in Wisconsin

Kenney said the school's normal assessment week schedule would run, but that time would be available for students to get caught up on schoolwork. On normal school days, Kenney said the school runs a seven-hour bell schedule. During assessment week, the school breaks up those hours over three days with two or three classes in 90-minute blocks with 30 minute breaks built in between those blocks.

"That maximizes the amount of time that students have to work on getting caught up, both with their teachers for a 90-minute block. Specifically, if they're behind in their math class, they can be working in the classroom with their teacher getting their stuff done, but then if they have to finish a paper or if they have to do some other thing, they have more time available to them outside of the classroom to get that stuff done," Kenney said.

Kenney said the goal was to get to the end of the semester and to start the second semester, which begins Jan. 24, fresh. The first semester was scheduled to end Jan. 20.

Kenney said if students are not able to get work done, it won't be counted against them.

"I have 200 different stories that I could tell you that I know of what students are dealing with because of the pandemic and how disruptive it is to education," he said.

Kenney said for students who are caught up, they can talk to their specific classroom teachers for extra work or extra credit opportunities.

The Shorewood High School principal said reaction from parents and students has been "overwhelmingly supportive."

One of those parents in support of the decision is Lynn Frieseke, whose son is a sophomore at the school.

"I was fine with it. A lot less pressure on the kids. They're going through enough these days," said Frieseke.

Kenney also said there are some who think the school is going too soft on students.

"From my lens of having the 30,000-foot view of what everybody's dealing with — it's like if you feel like I'm going too soft on the students, generally speaking it's because the students have been able to successfully navigate the pandemic without too many disruptions," he said. "Again, I'm super happy for them and congratulations, keep up the good work, but take a break. Just take a break. Time to concentrate on your own mental health and get ready to go for the second semester."

Contact Alec Johnson at (262) 875-9469 or alec.johnson@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @AlecJohnson12.

Our subscribers make this reporting possible. Please consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to the Journal Sentinel at jsonline.com/deal.

DOWNLOAD THE APP: Get the latest news, sports and more

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Shorewood High School cancels final exams for first semester