The annual ring ceremony, dating back to the School’s founding, underwent a schedule change this year, stirring some controversy.  

During the ceremony, seniors share words of encouragement and praise to a particular junior, before that person comes on stage to receive his or her ring.

In the past, the event, which traditionally takes place the last Friday before winter break, is reserved only for its occurrence. With a revised midterm exam schedule, however, a number of Upper School students, including juniors and seniors, had tests before the ceremony.  

“I had an exam in the morning, and I was mad about it,” said Ethan Eastwood ’18. 

Gabe Byran ’19 echoed Eastwood, saying that morning exams soured the celebratory mood of the day. 

“I was looking forward to that day my whole high school career, and the fact that I had to do an AP English test just made me really mad,” Bryan said. 

Upper School Head Joshua Neudel said that the change was in part made to ensure that more students would show for the event. 

“In the past, because that day was not used for anything other than the ring ceremony, we had a lot of people not come to school,” Neudel said. “If they didn’t want to be at the ring ceremony, they would just start vacation early, so we thought we should use it as a day of school.”  

Due to a boys’ varsity basketball game, students also had to leave for an early dismissal. 

“We tried to move the game, but we couldn’t,” Neudel said, noting that the School had players present and receive rings first to make the early dismissal. 

The ceremony also ran shorter this year, with presenters sticking to their scripts, Neudel said.

“This made it so that the basketball players got to hear the majority of the speeches before they left,” Neudel said.