As the District 214 board of education ponders five different options for calendars to use starting with the 2017-2018 school year, Elk Grove administration is considering the potential impact on activities and the operation of the building.

The discussion has taken place before, but not to the extent of this year’s proceedings.

“There’s always been murmurs of ‘you know, maybe we should do finals before Christmas break,’ but never to the degree that the superintendent [set] a survey up to get feedback,” Assistant Principal for Student Activities Robert Murphy said.

Several other districts in the area have gone through the process. The past discussions mostly took place “after a sister district would change to having finals before break,” Associate Principal for Operations Kyle Burritt said.

“[The question] was always ‘well, how come we don’t do that,’” Burritt said.

Students have considered the issue in a number of ways.

“I think they should have [finals] before Christmas break so [the material is] fresh in everyone’s mind, and everyone can do well,” junior James Ortiz said.

Freshman Merlyn Manoj, however, wonders if moving finals would be worth it.

“I feel like since finals are after winter break, I feel like people are more stressed out,” Manoj said. “You get more time to study throughout winter break, [but] I don’t really know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.”

Still others are content with whatever ends up happening.

“I’m kind of used to it now,” sophomore Sheldon Adams said. “I guess I would be open to the other schedules, even though I might not agree with them.”

Finals are far from the only change on the table; also presented to those who took the district’s poll was the potential of an all-year calendar, an option that would result in significant changes, particularly where athletics are concerned.

“We’d have to look at it [like] how winter break is right now,” Murphy said. “We have staff that’s here, but they’re not teaching during the day… they’re coaching.”

A change to an all-year calendar would also impact the summer camps that normally take place at the school.

“We would just have to work our summer camps around an after-school schedule,” Murphy said.

The school would also have to reconsider how necessary renovations would be done.

“If we were going to renovate a bunch of classrooms, we would still do that, because we may still have to do that,” Burritt said. “We’d have to be moving people around, [and setting up] temporary classrooms.”

The current schedule, however, still provides some problems in terms of maintenance.

“[Right now,] you have a very tight window because you can’t be doing a roof in September because kids are in school,” Burritt said. “That means prices go up, and labor costs go up, because everyone’s trying to do it in the exact same window.”

Other events that take place during the summer now would also have to be taken into account.

“Life would change during the summer,” Burritt said. “Big events would have to be rethought.”

Students, however, seem to be largely against an all-year calendar, perhaps best indicated by it being the lowest-ranked of the five options across the board in the district’s survey.

“I feel like the year-round schedule… is just gonna cause more agitation,” Adams said. “Nobody likes being here for longer than the nine months they have to be [here.]”

The times that schools start and end at are also on the table which has sparked a discussion on how current start and end times affect people.

“It does impact people’s quality of life a little bit,” Murphy said. “Our coaches do have to stay here later than other coaches… a coach who gets out at 2:50 probably gets home for dinner with their family, whereas a coach that gets out at 3:30 probably gets home for dessert.”

Murphy, however, was quick to take the other side into account.

“Parents can have breakfast with their kids in the morning, or they can drop their kids off at school,” Murphy said.

Sports are especially impacted by the time school ends, especially when the days start to get shorter.

“We are not just beholden to how many hours we can be here, we’re beholden to sunlight, too,” Murphy noted.

While other schools in the district are considering starting later in the morning, moving the start time is not as much of an issue for Elk Grove.

“I don’t know if we could go much later than we do now,” Burritt said.

Students have not ruled out a later start time, but they have considered the drawbacks.

“Sometimes, it seems like it would be nice to make it later, but… I don’t want to be at school that late,” junior Michelle Rojek said.

In the end, Elk Grove will try to make the most of whatever changes may come.

“Any change like this creates opportunities,” Murphy said. “We would figure out a way to take advantage of it to our benefit.”