Are the seniors in quarantine this quarter? The Upper School administration has made a major change regarding the senior privileges. Instead of granting the seniors their privileges after the first two weeks of school, the administration has decided to withhold the senior privileges until the end of quarter one.

“I think it is really important to note that this decision has nothing to do with this years’ senior class,” US history teacher Sara Teegarden said.

These privileges include the option to sign out and leave campus during their free period and lunch. Some other privileges the seniors have already received consist of wearing the senior polos with their uniforms, sitting on the senior bench, and parking in the senior lot. Future privileges include sitting in the new furniture in the commons and getting to wear college sweatshirts for the second semester.

This change is happening for a number of reasons. First, it should help the seniors with using their free time to get help from their teachers and get their work done. Second, Country Day wants to have their leaders present at school to set an example for the underclassmen.

“The administration has been talking about this for quite some time now. We also reached out last year to our student alumni, and they talked a lot about how busy the senior schedule is, especially during the first quarter,” US Division Head Steve Stackhouse said.

Stackhouse made an important point about how seniors have college applications and essays on top of the difficult classes some seniors take. By rolling the time out, the administration believes that the seniors can use this time on campus to focus on their academics and create good habits at the beginning of the year.

“This class has a great chance to be leaders because they bring a positive energy to campus. I don’t think that it is necessarily a reason to limit senior privileges, but it is certainly a positive impact of limiting them,” Teegarden said.

The Upper School administration is not completely depriving the seniors to their privileges. They get their privileges on Thursdays and Fridays for the first quarter starting September 13th.

“I understand why they made this change because it is to my belief that some of last year’s seniors’ grades were down by the end of the first quarter,” Drew Baker ‘19 said. “They were thinking that just limiting the privileges to Thursday and Friday will give us more time at school and keep our grades up.”

While he understands why the change was made, Baker still believes that the school could have waited to see if it was just last year’s senior class who didn’t use their time accordingly. Throughout the first quarter, the County Day community will watch how this controversy will play out.