WINTER BREAK BROKEN?

This year, our first semester will end on January 14, 2026. Here in Iowa, a semester must reach about 540 instruction hours to be considered an actual semester of school (1,080 hours for a school year). Last school year, there were concerns on whether or not the hours that we consider to be “instructional hours” were actually instructional. In the same vein, the difference in instructional hours between first and second semester became undeniable. The semester length change has got to be a sure-fire way to fix the instruction-hour-issue, right? Well, what’s in question now is does it create new issues?

The Switch

Most Clear Creek Amana High School students can agree that this time of year is a time we know far too well. In one word: conflicting. Missing assignments, winter sports, studying, winter holidays, finals, and—most of all—the year wrapping up. By this point, it’s easy to assume that we have all found ourselves in this same, annual rhythm. We hold our breaths, preparing to exhale once we step out of the building for winter break, and to return anew with the second semester. You see, the semester change brings this entire rhythm to a sudden—and rather un-musical—halt. And when this rhythm halts, I can assure you that the whole building will feel it. How do you feel knowing that one missing quiz in your world language class, or that essay in English, or even that lab in Chemistry is waiting for you on the other side of winter break? Or on the contrary, knowing that you must return to your first semester classes with everything prior being finished and forgotten, and absolutely no time to start anything new? This isn’t quite a small shift, even if it may seem to be one. We have built routines around the normal flow of the semester. Teachers surely do the same. This change in semester length throws in a whole new timeline for us to adapt to. How this change affects us all is an important discussion to be had.

Clear Creek Amana Community School District 25-26 Instructional Calendar

Student Opinion

Most students feel that the semester length change will affect their learning negatively, one student saying: “Genuinely the worst thing to happen this year. Nobody wants this.” Upon being asked, many students brought up a great point: would we have to take finals fresh out of winter break? This question was clearly prominent because of the fact that this would be the biggest flaw of the semester change. To have finals right after winter break would throw us students totally off balance. How can we be expected to perform well in our school work with the gap that winter break creates?

One student made an interesting proposal. “I think a much better way to handle it is starting school a week earlier. By ending after a break it makes this awkward gap where we can't do much as we only have a week, and we can't continue anything as we've forgotten most of it within the 2 weeks.” The student goes on to explain that, “It's not a clean finish and makes it a stumble into 2nd semester rather than a walk.” 

What I found most interesting when gathering students' opinions about the change is that so many students seem to have a strong opinion about this. On the other hand some students noted feeling surprised by the idea of it being an issue, or not even noticing that the change would happen at all. Excluding those who feel unaffected, the fact that so many of us feel concerned about this change. Normally with changes like this, students sweep it under the rug and go back to focusing on their own lives. But this directly bleeds into our own lives!

My Thoughts

To get the proper amount of instruction hours is our obligation as a school district, despite the repercussions. All of us have valid concerns for what the future holds moving forward this academic year. None of these concerns are dramatic nor ridiculous, and I must say that neither is the semester change itself. I think what is most important here is that us students find a way to work around our troubles and learn to live with this new change. 

Although, I would also say that it's up to the teachers as well to find a way to not make this be an issue in terms of finals and retaining information. If we can all work together, we can find a way to make this work out for all of us.