After hearing Park’s plans to keep a pass/fail option in place for the second semester of the 2020-21 school year, sophomore Scarlett Burkhart felt relieved for her friends who were struggling throughout the school year.

“This year has been really tough for a lot of people, and it’s good that you can choose if you want to do just a few classes (pass/fail) so you’re not affecting GPA,” Burkhart said.

According to interim principal Wendy Loberg, Park will allow students to selectively opt-in certain courses into pass/fail grading, a continuation of last semester’s policy. Additionally, this year all F’s will be automatically replaced by NC’s (no credit), and all D’s will be automatically replaced by P’s (pass).

Wanting to make sure that every student gets an equal opportunity to succeed, Loberg said the policy can act as an aid for students who might have faltered due to the struggles of this school year.

“Due to the pandemic and the hardships that many of our students endured … several of our students didn’t really have the same opportunity to excel as they might have had (if) they’ve been in school,” Loberg said. “We didn’t want students penalized for something that they couldn’t control.”

Because some students are still fully online for the remainder of the school year, senior Coletrane Kanne said he believes the school should keep the pass/fail option for those returning to Park next year.

“Since we’ve been in distance for like over a year now, and some people still aren’t back fully, it’s going to be a rough transition back into normal school,” Kanne said.

According to Loberg, the policy will most likely not be continued in following semesters, pending any unforeseen circumstances, but that decision has yet to be made.

“We only have made that decision one semester at a time, based on what our students’ feedback has told us,” Loberg said.

Satisfied with Park’s decision, Burkhart said the policy will ease the pressure off of students to keep their GPAs up during this challenging school year.

“It’s always good to have the opportunity to not have your GPA affected when it’s just one class you may be struggling in,” Burkhart said.