Senior skip day is, on paper, one of the simplest traditions imaginable: don’t go to school, don’t ask too many questions, and for one day, pretend responsibility is someone else’s problem. Yet this past week, that seemingly harmless unofficial holiday became a point of tension. When seniors chose to skip last Monday without clear notice to staff and faculty, the tradition created confusion and frustration across the school community.
There is little record of planning, organization, and execution of skip days in years past, but they have been present.
Math teacher Mr. Steve Sughrue, who has been at Tabor since 1987, shared, “Since I have been at Tabor, I think every senior class has had a skip day.”
History corroborates this observation. One of the 2016 student co-heads confirmed that it did take place in some way in 2016. One of the 2019 student co-heads remembered that senior skip day that year was unsanctioned but occurred. It is unclear if there was one in 2020 due to COVID disruptions, and in 2021, students did work with faculty regarding the skip day, but the resolution was not revealed in records obtained by The Log. In 2023, the faculty were notified of the skip day, as it was scheduled in collaboration with the Student Life Office, the Academic Office, and the Athletic Office. That was not necessarily the case for the Class of 2024, as the faculty was told to “…mark [missing seniors] absent.” In 2025, the Senior Skip Day occurred after AP exams were completed, unlike this year. The Class of 2025 learned about their skip day about a month prior on the Instagram page for the class, so it was on the radar, but the exact day was decided about a week in advance. Teachers had some indication when the day would occur; some told seniors that they would still be required to attend class if the skip day fell on an important course date.
One student from the Class of 2025 shared, “I think we got points, but didn’t have to serve the detentions. It was mainly up to individual teachers, though. Some would threaten to take points from final tests or make us check in at the beginning of class.” Other ’25 seniors have mentioned that teachers seemed to be relaxed by cancelling class or holding check-ins.
With regards to the 2026 skip day, The Log has been able to identify the following communications between Tabor Academy Student Council and certain school offices.
A TASC member told The Log that senior skip day had been in the works, with the plan that it would fall on a sunny non-game day that would not conflict with AP exams. TASC reached out to Mr. Voci at some point in the weeks prior, but that communication had no specifics on the plans for senior skip day. On Sunday, April 26, TASC sent an email to Mr. Voci at 12:26 p.m. What was said in that email was not revealed; however, Mr. Voci deemed it a “professional move” on TASC’s part, acknowledging that the TASC team tried to do things right.
A couple of moments later, a Teams group chat with the entire senior class and Mr. Houck, Mr. Heavey, and Ms. McColl, was created. At 12:49 p.m., a chat from TASC members announced that senior skip day was to be the following day, Monday, April 27. The expectation was for students to attend the chapel, and once the ceremony was over, senior skip day would begin. The announcement noted that “…you [the senior class] will not get points for missing class as the administration knows.” The announcement from TASC was not confirmed by the Academic Office or Student Life; it is not clear which administrators are included in the statement that “…the administration knows,” nor what “knows” means. That evening, Faculty and Staff received an email from Mr. Voci (again, details within this email have not been provided) and received emails from their students asking to push back tests or quizzes that had already been assigned for the day.
On Monday, the senior class showed up at the chapel and stayed until the ceremony was over. Once senior skip day began, the seniors went off to the waterfront to hang out with their friends and enjoy a relaxing day bonding with their class. Around the end of study hall, roughly 9:40ish p.m., students checked myTA to see major assignments being published or pushed to an earlier date without any prior notice.
Finally, on Tuesday morning, students complained to the Academic Office about their concerns. By Tuesday evening, most conflicts that had arisen were resolved.
Because senior skip day was minimally communicated to the faculty, many teachers felt confused about how they should plan Monday’s lessons.
When Mrs. McCarthy was asked what she thought about this day, she responded, “I am glad it’s not done on the last day of school.” She added that it was a lot easier to change her plans for a Monday rather than on a day when students would be presenting. On the contrary, Mr. Wojcik had a different opinion. He was not happy with this skip day as he viewed it as a waste of his time and thought it was disrespectful to his teaching schedule. Most teachers believed that earlier and clearer communication would have benefitted everyone.
Before the chaos took place, on Monday, the waterfront was full of smiling seniors happy to have a day off and spend time with one another before the year comes to a close. There were field games and people talking with each other, all while soaking up one of the first sunny days of the year. Some seniors even grilled lunch for their classmates to enjoy. While in the moment, this day was wonderful; arriving at school the next day and checking grades on myTA was not. Many students had to scramble to figure out how to resolve the zeros on newly added participation grades for the classes missed on Monday.
Even though skip days happen every year, they are almost always executed differently. Given that senior skip day is an annual occurrence, establishing some sort of standard procedure might alleviate stress for both faculty and students.
