Due to a major winter storm, all PPS schools shut their doors for a full week starting on Jan. 15 and lasting until Jan. 19. This was an important week for academics, as the following week was the end of the semester when final projects and tests were finalized.
In response to the dilemma, one Cleveland student took matters into their own hands and created a petition on change.org. The petition advocated for pushing finals back one week in order to accommodate students who were unable to prepare due to power outages.
Prior to the decision from PPS, a student commented on the petition, “I had no power, my Chromebook was dead. How am I going to send in my assignments?”
Even students with power during the week off were unhappy with the situation. “I’m not prepared for finals and I need more time to check in with my teachers,” another student wrote.
However, despite the petition reaching over 4,000 signatures in less than a week, PPS ignored the petition and continued school as normal. Disappointment overwhelmed the petition supporters as they returned to school on Monday, Jan. 22, hopeful to recover quickly from the week’s absence.
Although finals were not postponed, grading deadlines for teachers were shifted to Feb. 2, giving more opportunities for students to resolve previous issues. The district also promised that no new content would be covered in the two days before finals to ease the transition back into school.
The missed week had unforeseen consequences that rippled throughout the Cleveland community. The ice caused many different clubs and extracurricular activities to be canceled or postponed, including a Constitution Team competition. There were also general shifts in winter sports schedules like basketball, swim, and wrestling. Other meetings for clubs were canceled, with the week off potentially having detrimental effects for the rest of the Pigmice robotics team’s entire season.