There are two kinds of seniors.

Those seniors are either taking a full schedule with mostly AP classes… or those that are taking the minimum two to three classes per semester along with half a year of open blocks just fill the required credits needed to graduate.

Some seniors are still at school all four blocks and spending most of their nights studying and working toward doing well in their four classes while some can feast in their free time as they choose to take only two to three classes a semester. Of course, there are exceptions and not everyone falls into these two groups but the divide is never larger than during senior year.

This split is done due to how Millard Public Schools has structured our schedules starting in middle school. With the current system, most students have advanced so much in their core classes that by their fourth year of high school, most of a senior’s classes in english, math, science, and social Studies classes are at the AP level which can be considered as entry level College classes.

For example, our two-year jump start of foreign language gives interested students the opportunity to advance to the AP of their foreign language by senior year without having to double up.

This system leaves upcoming seniors two distinct pathways while choosing their classes. They can either choose to continue in their core curriculum pathway and into AP classes, or ease it down and choose a good number of easier classes away from the core curriculum simply to correspond to the the minimum number of classes they need for the year. Although it is usually not advised by teachers and staff, seniors are also prone to taking an abundance of open blocks.

This begs the question, do we even need senior year?

By the last year of high school most Millard West students are either already going up into college-level classes, or solely taking a minimum number of classes only to meet a requisite.

Most seniors aren’t even at school half the time.

Of course, there are many valid reasons why students choose to take the classes they do. Students can take advantage of open blocks to work more hours than they could in past years, have more time to apply to colleges and scholarships, etc.

But binding students to a fourth year of high school when most are either already taking college- level classes, or taking the easiest possible classes plainly to conform to a minimum can seem kind of unproductive.

With the current system that Millard and specifically Millard West, decreasing high school to only three years could potentially give students more freedom to what they would like to pursue in their future. Since a good number of seniors now are already taking most college-level classes, they might go straight to College. Others can take a gap year and save up money for school, travel, start working full time in their field of interest. The possibilities are endless because they wouldn’t have to satisfy a required number of credits to graduate by taking classes like Weight Training and International Foods.