March 21 marked the last shortened Tuesday students have in the 2016-2017 school year.

The shortened Tuesdays in the past semesters of the 2015-2016 school year served as professional development days. While students went home, staff stayed after school and attended training and staff meetings.

“We had to get special permission from the district to do that [have short Tuesday’s] and had to validate that it had an instructional purpose,” Principal Deb Smith said.

Having a shortened day every Tuesday is not mandatory for high schools. However, Daniel Pearl was able to have short Tuesday’s due to being linked to Mulholland’s schedule, which has a shortened day every week.

Starting this year, LAUSD has mandated that only 14 shortened days are required in a school year.

“By not having it [short Tuesdays] we’ve increased the instructional minutes and that’s why we can get out at 3:02 compared to last year,” school administrator Nicole Bootel said.

Each week will remain regular schedule unless otherwise posted.