Unbeknownst to many Staples teachers and students, the scheduling of the end of the third marking period only permits for one day of testing in its final week.

The third quarter, which ends on March 31, is filled with holidays and days off from school, preventing teachers from assigning homework and giving tests. March 29 is the only day that teachers are allowed to test and assign due dates for projects and essays for their students. The school’s policy states that teachers may not assign homework on March 29 and 30, out of respect for Passover.

In addition, the policy also states that there can be “no all day special activities” on March 30, meaning no tests are allowed to be given on that day.

April 1 and 2 are ineligible for testing as they are a staff development day and Good Friday, respectively. Students have both of these days off from school.

With Monday, March 29 being the final day of the quarter that teachers are permitted to test, students could see a greater number of tests on that day.

“My response is thank you for telling me that,” Liz Olbrych, an English teacher, said in response to learning about the scheduling conflict. “In a nutshell that means I need to shuffle end of quarter stuff.”

With this knowledge, Olbrych plans to move her major assignments so that they are due the prior week.

Science teacher, David Rollison, had a similar response to that of Olbrych’s. Rollison was unaware of such a scheduling conflict and encourages students to take action themselves.

“One thing students can do is talk to their teachers outside of the classroom a week ahead of time and ask for the teacher to make an adjustment,” Rollison said.

Like Olbrych and Rollison, Chemistry teacher Flavio Tinoco was also unaware of such a scheduling conflict. However, all teachers plan to abide by the no-testing on holidays policy of the school.

“If it is the school’s policy then I cannot test as an observance of the holiday,” Tinico said.

Principal John Dodig will encourage teachers to plan ahead about the bizarre end of quarter schedule.

“We will just have to live with it [the end of the quarter schedule]. There is nothing we can do about it,” Dodig said. “I will mention to teachers to be attentive to it.”