Speculation about the placement of midterm exams has risen in recent weeks due to the Henrico County School Board’s release of a proposed calendar for the 2017-2018 school year.

A main change noted in this calendar is winter break,  beginning on Friday, Dec. 22 for students, while that Friday remains a teacher work day. During previous years, this work day has taken place at the end of the exam week.

Although this change may be due to the placement of New Year’s Day, which would land on Monday, there is an idea amongst both teachers and students that exams could possibly be moved to before winter break.

Another theory is that mid-term exams will not be held at all, due to the fact that they are not present on the proposed calendar.

This school year, mid-term exams were cancelled for “inclement weather”. The purpose of this cancellation was said to be for teachers to have additional class time.

Exams were given optionally, and if taken, they could only help students’ grades.

According to @HenricoSchools on Twitter, “Henrico County Public Schools has decided to CANCEL the Jan. 24-27, 2017, mid-term exams for high school credit courses.”

Due to this last minute cancellation, there is even more speculation of exams being cancelled for the next year.

Chesterfield County Public School’s schedule began administering exams before break in recent years, a move which has many pros and cons.

For example, some may argue moving exams to before break would allow students to fully immerse themselves in their subjects before having a holiday, rather than returning and having to relearn material.

However, there is concern about the week before break being a distracting time for students.

Other schools seem to be changing their minds on mid-terms as well. Hanover County Public Schools has announced they will not administer mid-term exams in 2017-2018.

Although there is no final decision about mid-term cancellations for the next school year, the school board along with a benchmark and exam committee is planning to meet throughout the second semester to finalize next year’s calendar.