Snow days are typically celebrated by EHS students; however, this wasn’t the case in December when inclement weather forced the administration to close school the Monday and Tuesday before final exams.

With the loss of the two school days immediately preceding exams, many EHS students were concerned about their ability to fully prepare for their finals.

The concern motivated seniors Natalie Loveridge and Scottlynn Ballard to write and share an online petition titled “Finals Should Only Better Our Grade” on the Tuesday before final exams started.

The petition requested that EHS administration change their policy so that final exams could only improve students’ grades.  A total of 1,882 students quickly signed the petition.

“The two days before finals are crucial review days where students can ask their teachers questions and go over information learned over the semester,” Loveridge and Ballard said in the petition.

Loveridge and Ballard furthered their argument by pointing out that multiple schools in St. Louis (FSHD, Parkway Central and Fort Zumwalt) “have already made the stance to take these unique circumstances into consideration.”

Ballard said that while Monday was an expected snow day, Tuesday was not.

“A lot of students had concerns over if they would then have to use the hour study period before the exams to make up the assignments [that they missed on Tuesday],” Ballard said, “which would then prevent them from being able to ask review questions and better prepare for the final.”

While the petition was supported by most of the student body, senior Hannah Kramer did not agree with the request.

“I believe that finals add more weight to our grades when colleges look at our GPA,” Kramer said.  “Finals are also important preparation for college.”

Kramer also believed the subset of students who were going to study for finals would not be affected by the snow days.

“I had already finished most of my studying by the time the petition went up,” Kramer said.  “If people were going to study, most of them had already done so.”

Math teacher Tiffany McBride, however, was very concerned that her students would not be prepared for the final.

“I was very worried at first,” Ms. McBride said. “However, we had good study periods right before the exams. Normally the hour before the final is for studying on your own, but with the snow days I had everybody study together.”

Ms. McBride believes that the snow days may have encouraged the students to study more.

“I think maybe they studied harder because they were nervous,” Ms. McBride said. “I was really impressed actually; they did better than my class averages from the past five years.”

While the administration did not change its final exam policies, Ballard is content with the social impact of the petition.

“While it may not have done much change in the short term,” Ballard said, “I’m hoping it may open the issue to further discussion.”