New school and district policies awaited Green Hope High School students as they walked through the doors for the 2023-2024 school year. Modified restrictions are now in place for absences, parking spots and on-campus eating.
Senior exemptions from final exams in certain classes are now changed back to pre-COVID policies. Prior to COVID and remote learning, the policy stated that a senior taking a teacher-made exam who had an 80% or higher and fewer than 10 absences was exempt. When COVID prompted the closing of schools and the implementation of remote learning, the Wake County School District altered the senior exemption policy allowing for all seniors with teacher-made exams to be automatically exempted from taking that exam.
Due to the complete re-opening of schools, WCPSS reinstated the pre-COVID senior exemption policy for the 2023-2024 school year. Seniors are no longer exempt from the final exam if they pass the class; they must receive at least a B and have less than 10 absences in the class.
Green Hope Principal, Mrs. Alison Cleveland, shared her thoughts on the new county-wide policy regarding senior exemptions. “The design is to provide seniors with an incentive to continue to learn and to master the content of the course. Being exempt from taking a final if you have not displayed mastery and thorough understanding in a course doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. [Earning a grade of an] A B is usually a pretty good indicator of mastery.”
With regards to the attendance policy for senior final exemptions, Cleveland also mentioned, “Over the past couple of years, we have noticed a growing number of absences. Students just aren’t coming to school, and there’s been a growing misconception that students are able to learn just as well at home, asynchronously, as they would if they came to school in person. By tying in an attendance policy to the senior exemptions, it encourages students to come to school and gain that mastery that we would like all students to gain.”
Green Hope senior, Charlie Jeffries (‘24), shared her opinion on the reinstated policy. “It’s senior year, and a lot of the time you’ve already been accepted into colleges. A C is a passing grade, and there has always been a perception enforced within classrooms that a C is average and means that you’re on the right track. If that is no longer the perception, then that needs to be reflected in classroom standards. We shouldn’t be told that a C is okay if it’s not.”
Students can get their parking pass revoked if they have 10 absences as well. Green Hope administration implemented this policy around the midpoint of the previous academic year and continued to apply it this school year.
Jeffries commented on this policy saying, “This policy is rather inconsiderate for those who rely on driving themselves to school. There are a lot of reasons a student may not be able to make it to school, many of which are out of their control. If a student has overriding family matters or becomes sick, their absence days may pile up, causing them to reach this threshold easily. After that, how will they get to school?”
Green Hope High administration saw a need to regulate on-campus eating by closing down the 300 wing during lunch.
Assistant Principal, Mrs. Sarah Roberston, provided an explanation for the change saying, “It was hard to supervise the 300 wing during lunch- it was often getting out of control. To make it more manageable, we decided to shut it down this year.”
With the intent of facilitating student growth, Green Hope will continue to adapt to these changes. Although there are some conflicting opinions between students, parents and faculty, these changes have been updated and created to best benefit the academic goals and successes of Green Hope High School students.
Evey • Oct 3, 2023 at 7:45 pm
The scant amount of absence days including the actual excused days is unacceptable; the only solace one can find is in the ability to contest said absences. If one is sick or participates in a school trip for a total of fifteen days instead of ten, the policy becomes beauracratic and fails to achieve its intended purpose. There is not “conflicting opinions,” there is only overwhelming disappointment from parents and students, coupled with rigid following from faculty.
Instead of limiting students allowed in locker bays, Green Hope has decided to ban it entirely, creating excessive crowding in other areas, a perspective I hope to see in the next article. Why doesn’t Green Hope give students the trust to be people who can maintain an area or be accountable enough to keep coming to class? And if maintaining a smaller portion of students in the locker bays is an issue, what are people to say about the borderline fire hazard that is the cafeteria? Especially with more and more families moving into our area, Green Hope needs to find a more effective solution.
Instead of having teachers supervise students, they are strolling around locker bays to ensure that they are empty—when they could in fact be watching a reasonable and a more limited amount of students. I think more opinions of students on the removal of the locker bays should be included, and I will be pleasantly surprised to see a continuation of these types of articles with more perspectives especially with touching on the hindrance that is the parking pass revocation.