Before we had finals in December, the PAUSD calendar was typically this -

3 day weekend for MLK Birthday during which the high school kids would study for finals. Finals on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, end of the Semester!

No school on Friday so staff could grade finals (bonus day off for middle and elementary teachers!)

Long weekend - High school students had their one REAL break since the beginning of school.

In theory, a great weekend to do something as a family since no one else was off from school, BUT if you happen to have middle and high school kids as I did, while the high school was on the end of semester "break" for three days, the middle school kids typically had extra homework for the weekend since they had 3 days to complete it.

This weekend I will appreciate the new calendar even more!