In a five to one vote the school board accepted a proposal Monday to set aside two days for state assessments. Students taking the assessments will be in school while everyone else will get both days off.

According to the proposal, on March 12th, there will be seven tests. Four of the tests will be reading and each will last 45 minutes, while the other three will consist of mathematics and will also last 45 minutes each. The second testing date is April 9th.

Although many juniors may feel this is an excessive amount of testing while everybody else stays home and sleeps in, there is the potential for a reward. If the juniors meet the standard of excellence for their state assesments, they will be waived from their finals.

For instance, if the junior class meets their goal for the science assessments, then they will be exempt from their science finals. Basically, for every assessment the junior class meets their goal for, they will not have to take that final, and will be excused from class during the scheduled final time.

The proposal was originally created because it gives the junior class an incentive to try hard, to keep students from worrying about their next class while taking the tests and so that the school wouldn’t have the computers tied up for a minimum of eight weeks.

“We just thought this was the best way,” principal Lew Faust said.

While the board still has to make a final decision on whether or not the proposal will make it all the way through, students have been anticipating the final decision with great hopes.

“I think it’s a great idea because it’s just us juniors,” junior Cassandra Spohn said. “We don’t have to worry about anything else, but then we still have the downfall of coming and taking the finals if we don’t meet the standard of excellence. So it’s really up to us to meet our goal, but if we actually take the time to get prepared and have the mind set, then we can do it.”

The next board meeting is January 28th. The board will be able to work out any kinks in the proposal and will most likely have their decision.

“It will probably go, but you never know,” Faust said.