After much ambiguity and frustration from teachers and students, Creek will be creating a committee to review and update the late work policy.
Since being established in August, the new late work committee, currently headed by Registrar Marcus McDavid and Assistant Principal Dr. Krista Keogh, has been busy reaching out to teachers for feedback, who have been complaining about the shortcomings and inconsistencies of the late work policy.
“We want to make sure that we are able to focus on promoting a good learning environment for students but also supporting teachers from the perspective of making sure that they have a reasonable time frame, because it is hard to be a teacher,” McDavid said. “Having something hanging over your head for the better part of three or four months is really hard for a teacher.”
Currently, the official late work policy stated in Bear Facts is that all missed tests and work due to an absence can be made up, within 2 school days per day of absence. However, teachers have discretion on how much credit can be given for late work turned in for unexcused absences.
For most teachers and students, that last addition can make it complicated to understand how the standing late work policy impacts grades, as different teachers can and will have different standards regarding late work.
“I don’t think (the late work policy) is universal, and that makes it hard as a teacher to especially tell a student you can’t get credit for something if you’re not doing the same thing that the whole school is doing,” World Languages teacher Amy Rosevear said.
There are currently no concrete ideas or conclusions yet, as the committee has not been fully formed and it will still have to deliberate on any changes, according to McDavid. However, he has outlined a rough timeline of any policy changes.
“[We] will try to make sure that teachers get their eyes on the findings of the committee by the end of first semester, with the idea of trying something out in the second semester with the hope of then solidifying that at the start of the next year,” McDavid said.
However, for students like Senior Mars Grochala, there are concerns that the committee’s changes may go too far.
“I am completely for changing the unexcused absence policy,” Grochala said. “But I think they might change more than needs to be changed. I am all for this committee, but just a little nervous.”
According to Principal Ryan Silva, the goals of the committee are to address the previously mentioned failings, which include teachers having different standards or waiting on students to turn in makeup work.
“I just want to make sure that we’re being thoughtful about all the different types of challenges that we have,” Silva said. “[Both] at the student level or at the teacher level when it comes to late work.”
