In response to stay-at-home orders due to the coronavirus pandemic and the challenges students may face with at-home learning, RUHS has decided to “hold students harmless” for their grades per RBUSD policy. No student will receive a lower grade than the one received on March 12, the day before RUHS’s closure.

Redondo Beach Unified School District’s focus is on maintaining and enhancing learning while giving students the opportunity to raise their last in-school grade. Furthermore, if a student’s grade dips below the grade recorded on March 12, the higher grade will be reported on their official transcript.  

 High school students can receive grades A-C, or an Incomplete (IN) for their fourth quarter grade based on their base grade from third quarter and their participation Quarter 4. 

In addition, past and future assignments given between April 13 and June 10 are eligible to be inputted into the grade book. As for pre-closure grades, teachers are given until April 30 to finalize those and late work. 

Sophomore Evan Fung believes that grades will be easier to maintain under the new policy, helping to counteract the difficulties of working from home. 

“It feels a little unreal, or too good to be true, mostly because it feels like we’re still getting a lot of work,” Fung said. “Overall though it’s nice to know that there will be a cushion for grading.”

For sophomore Sofia Cielak, the new grading policy presents a Catch 22 scenario: while it alleviates some stress and allows her to focus on preparing for AP exams, the new grading policy serves as a cause for a lack of motivation. 

“I feel like [in school] there is more rigor, and that motivates me more to do better, because now that I know that my grade can only improve I feel like I’m going to subconsciously not try as hard

on the assignments,” Cielak said. “Honestly, I don’t think [my motivation] is going to be that high as the only reason I’ll be motivated to do the work is because I’m going to give myself incentive and because there’s only so many shows to watch on Netflix.”