Dear Esteemed School Board of Palm Beach County and Superintendent Dr. Fennoy, 

    We, the Palm Beach County Class of 2020, are hereby requesting that the last day of school for seniors remain the originally scheduled date of May 8th, 2020 instead of the currently scheduled May 15th, 2020. 

The completion of our academics on May 8th (senior sign out) was originally to lead into our senior week of activities, and then onto graduation. May 8th was the light at the end of the tunnel as we poured all of our hard work, starting from kindergarten, into our last academics of our high school experience. We completed our final midterm exams, applied for colleges, and anxiously awaited acceptance letters and scholarship results: knowing that our well-deserved end of high school was after the first week of May. Then COVID-19 struck. We were robbed of our opportunity to enjoy the last moments of childhood and to create final memories with high school friends before going our separate ways for the rest of our lives. All of our milestone events unfortunately had to be cancelled including: our prom, our senior trip to Orlando, our week of school activities, our yearbook signing event, and our graduation ceremony. Our last glimmer of hope, the one thing that was not cancelled, was our milestone senior sign out, which we watched our older peers get to do in excitement every single year. 

We might not have had senior week to look forward to, or graduation, or any other events that were supposed to give us closure, but at least we had May 8th to look forward to, a glimmer of hope plastered on all our calendars since the beginning of the school year-but not anymore. Furthermore: many, if not all, academic classes and art classes online have proven to be so much more rigorous with unbearable workloads: in most cases demanding even more from us than when we were still attending school in-person each day. This is difficult on many students due to family circumstances related to COVID-19, as well as the Class of 2020 grieving for the loss of one of the biggest occasions of our lives. Some of us have family members or friends lying in hospitals, hooked up to ventilators. We are consumed with pondering whether those people will die-worrying whether our grandparents or parents will be next-afraid that we won’t be able to begin college in the fall-wondering whether life will ever be the same again. It is very much a time of fear for all, and for the PBCSD to expect us to attend increasingly difficult and unnecessarily rigorous virtual classes for one week longer displays an extreme lack of emotional and logical consideration.

Additionally, AP exams were rescheduled for the second and third weeks of May. By postponing senior sign out until May 15th, our virtual classes would be conflicting with the first week of our scheduled AP exams. This will cause an already difficult learning situation to become even more challenging. If we ended on May 8th as was originally planned, we would have ample time to study for our last ever AP exams: which would obviously lead to a potential increase in scores; and consequently, to even more money for your district. So not only are you hurting us, you’re hurting yourselves and the entire Palm Beach County School District too. Pushing senior sign out simply does not make sense, especially in light of the fact that ALL the other grades (K-11) are still ending on their originally scheduled last day of school: May 29th. So, nothing in that regard has changed for them; but it has changed for us, even as our whole world, our expectations, are turned upside down? This is completely unacceptable. There is no sense in dragging out the seniors’ academic school year when so much has already been torn from the monumental end that we have dreamed of since kindergarten. We are writing to you, so that you can understand this, and not do this.

We have dedicated ourselves to our high schools for four years, making it the best it can be both academically and artistically, and now it is time for the district to reciprocate. How can we be expected to continue to turn in assignments, take notes, and study while we are so consumed with mourning all the milestones we have lost - mourning our dreams that will never come true. Completing quizzes, attending classes, all on the week that was supposed to be a fun time of memories for us - it is not right. It will not be accepted. We are a group of individuals who refuse to be walked over or silenced. We have had so much taken away from us already. Since we have been robbed of every other milestone imaginable to bring closure to our first 18 years of life, the least that can be done for us is to have our last day of school remain as originally planned.

Thus, we respectfully petition that the last day of school for Palm Beach County high school seniors (class of 2020) will remain the originally scheduled date of May 8th. 

    Sincerely, 

    Palm Beach County Class of 2020 + families