SSM will be switching from its trimester system to semesters for the 2025-2026 school year. Deciding to switch has been talked about since the 2023-2024 school year. One of the main reasons was matching with the majority of schools nationwide already operating under the semester system. Mr. Pat Schaefer is the Director of the Upper School explained reasons why this change is happening. This change brings many questions like: how will this impact students and what impact will this have on finals schedules?
There are many benefits to these changes. One of the reasons is mid-year transfers Mr.Schaefer said, “When you have kids transferring in, transferring out, it’s always always a little bit more complex, trying to convert wherever the transcripts were from their original school to our system.” He hopes this change will ease the transition of new students and make things easier on graduating seniors applying to college. SSM is a college prep school and the majority of its students go on to attend four- year universities. This change should prepare them for the semester system present at most colleges.
The change comes with students in mind, having semesters eliminates February final exams, taking stress off students. One of the biggest changes will be the shift in finals schedules. Students will no longer have three final terms cutting down to only two with the semesters. This shift will make it so there is no longer a Fall Term , Winter Term, and Spring Term Finals. Instead there will be a Winter Term Final in December and a Spring Term in May. This will reduce anxiety amongst students and mental health problems caused by exam periods.
Additionally, Mr.Schaefer hopes this will slow down some of the courses. He said, “It allows teachers more time to kind of dive in and really dig into a lot of the material, as opposed to right now it kind of feels like go, go, go. With this switch we are hoping to alleviate some of that.”
Diving deeper into subjects without pause for finals will give classes a smoother feeling. Sophomore Bria Schilling said, “I think it will help me in my classes because it won’t feel so broken up. Instead just a continuous flow.” A lot of thought and planning has already gone into this and will continue to go into it.
Registration and scheduling have already started. Many logistics will be explained in the fall. Some logistics will be explained to students in the fall. Knowing that, the faculty have chosen to keep a positive attitude, Mr. Schaefer said, “I’m sure we’re [going] to learn things, right?” Currently the biggest drawbacks are on the paperwork side, because all returning students will have two different transcripts, one from before the switch, and another from after.
SSM traditions like Harvest Breakfast which takes place before November exams will be less reliant on exam schedules and based more on the calendar year. Similarly breaks will not be based around finals, they will stay the same for the 2025-2026 school year. SSM is excited for this new chapter, to do what is best for students by taking stress off them and better prepare students for college.
