MHS Seniors Finishing up the Term

By Mike Lamb

As senior year ends, a common question for seniors is, “do I have to take finals?” The answer? It depends. (Not only on your grades for the fourth term either). At the end of May, seniors have several end-of-the-year steps to complete, sometimes in addition to final exams.

There are many requirements in order to be exempt from taking finals. The first requirement is grades. Your cumulative average for the second semester must be a B- or better. If you do not meet this requirement, then you must take the final no matter whether or not you meet the other requirements.

Unsurprisingly, that is not the only requirement seniors need to meet. In the third term, you are limited to no more than four unexcused tardies, four unexcused dismissals and no more than six unexcused absences.  These limitations are lenient in the third term; in the fourth term the requirements are more rigorous.

In Term 4, you are only allowed two absence days in order to avoid taking finals. However, you are not allowed to simply miss two days of school without an excuse in the fourth term. If you get an unexcused absence from a class during the fourth term you have to make up your absence with community service. May 20-21 were community service days this year. If you wanted to be excused from finals but had missed two days of school, you had to volunteer for community service on both days. If you missed one day, you had to do community service for one day.

Community service days had to last four hours. You were not allowed to do the service on Sunday and have it count for community service.  Additionally there was a sign-off form that seniors had to give to Mr. Sperling by May 15, with contact information for each senior’s service location.

Apart from community service days and final exams, seniors also need to complete a special form before graduation. The senior sign-out form is posted on the Class of 2013 Edline page. There are many signatures that are needed on this form. You need an administrator to sign off that your locker is clean. Then you need a signature from each of your teachers that declares that all books, materials or cost obligations in the course have been fulfilled. Once you have had all of your teachers sign off, you need to go to your guidance counselor so they can check that you have the grades and have completed your mandatory online survey on the Naviance page.

The survey asks that you fill out the results of all of the colleges you applied to and the college that you are attending the following year. Also, you must answer a question: “If you knew what you know now, what would you do differently?” The answers that the seniors give are given to the incoming freshman, so they know what they should be doing right off the bat.

Finally, you have to go to the main office to check to see if you have paid all four years of class dues. Once that is confirmed and signed off, you are done and finally have the form signed off. After this long and lengthy process, you are ready for your cap and gown because you are done!

This article was written by Mike Lamb, a Medfield High School student and member of the student newspaper, The Kingsbury Chronicle. The piece is part of Medfield Patch's weekly series, "Warrior Weekly," helping provide information about MHS to the local community.