By Julia Angelotti, Executive Editor

With the year coming to an end soon, many Kaneland students have questions regarding next year’s schedule. The Krier sent out a poll asking students what questions they would like to ask the administration and gathered the answers.

 Q. How will  M&M work for the freshmen?

A. “Ms. Trafton, Mr. Markovich, Peer Leaders and administrators are continuing to work on this. As soon as we have a concrete answers, we will make sure it is communicated to the students and staff,” Assistant Principal Jill Maras said.

 Q. How are culinary and science classes going to work next year?

A. “They will work similar to how they do now. If more than 50 minutes are needed for a lab, it will most likely be completed over two class periods,” Maras said.

Q. How is study hall going to work next year?

A. “Study hall will be the same length as a period: 50 minutes. A student can take a study hall for one semester or a full year. There’s also STEP, which is partnered with lunch for half a period,”  Counselor Cynthia Violett said.

Q. Where are the PSAE promises that were made to last years’ juniors? 

A. “PSAE promises were made a few years ago, but due to the delay in receiving the scores back and then passing out the prizes, it didn’t seem to be a good incentive that actually had an effect on the test scores. I am personally not aware of promises being made last year,” Maras said.

Q. How long will lunches, STEP and passing periods be? 

A. “The time of our day next year is part of our current teacher negotiations. The School Improvement Team and administration have suggested that each passing period be five minutes, each class period will be 50 minutes and each lunch and STEP be 50 minutes total, with a three-minute transition in between,” Maras said.

Q.  How will clubs meet next year? Will the eight-period day have a big effect on clubs?

A. “The School Improvement Team is still working on this, but at this point it is looking like [clubs] will be meeting before or after school. As we asked our neighboring school districts, we found this is traditionally be the case. The SIT and administration realize the difficulty this will cause and have been working hard to look for an alternate solution, but we have not found one yet,” Maras said.

Q. How are midterms and finals going to work next year? 

A. “SIT and administration are still working out these details, and again we will communicate it to all as soon as it is determined,” Maras said.

Q. Why can’t students leave early? 

A. “Early release is only for students with extenuating circumstances. It’s best for students to take a rigorous senior schedule and or explore career interests,” Violett said.

 Q. Does Kaneland have a honor roll?  If we do, where is it? 

A. “Yes, Kaneland’s high honor is 4.0 or higher, and honor roll is 3.5 to 4.0. It’s located on the website and  in newspapers,” Violett said.

Q. Why do varsity sports have to have P.E. while it’s their season?

A. “PE waivers have been discussed, but  for athletes that are juniors or seniors only. However, the coaches like that students can take PFT and get their workouts in during the day,” Athletics Director Leigh Jaffke said.

Q. Why can’t students listen to iPods?

A. “As technology is rapidly changing, so are our views on the usage of technology in the classroom. As our views change, our policies also need to change. We have already begun to look at this, but we will have more concrete steps put in place at the start of next year. Doing a quick Google search, you will see that this is a hot topic for all of education right now,” Maras said.

 Q. What other things does is the administration suggests for next year? 

A. “We are also recommending that once a week our school have a one hour late start for teacher KLC time. This would be similar to our current Monday morning schedule, but for an entire hour. Those logistics are still in the works. Our hope is that [it] becomes a useful time for students as well with options for possible speakers, access to the library and College and Career Center, time to work on group projects with peers, access to Student Services, test prep options and more. We would welcome input on what the students would like to see available during that time. Because we highly value KLCs, our time for the teachers will be protected. We will be looking for alternatives for the students that do not impact the KLC time. Students will have access to staff and resource centers during their STEP time,” Maras said.