Quick Update About TOPS Start Time

I pointed out recently that in the SPS calendar, there were two school start times that were incorrect. It says that all the K-8s start at 8:20 a.m. Now we here know that it's not so; TOPS and Salmon Bay have a different start time.

I had called around at the district yesterday, trying to find out how this happened but I got a very irritated person in Transportation saying the calendars were not their doing. I spoke to someone in Communications who said they would have Tom Bishop of Transportation call me back.

I pointed this at to the Board, both in an e-mail and at the Board meeting. I told them, "One thing you need to get right is the time you expect parents to have their child at school."

I ran into Mr. Bishop as I left the Board meeting. He explained that yes, two K-8s don't start at the same time as the others. He seemed very calm and not a whole lot concerned. I told him the calendar reflected that they all start at the same time. He said thanks for telling him about it.'

Who proofread this thing and okayed the calendar? I can only find out it was in Communications.

Did the SPS website reflect anything about this today? No, I guess the district believes/knows that all the Salmon Bay and TOPS parents, including the new parents, know their school's start time.

Except I checked and the pdf of the start/end times of schools on the SPS home page says that TOPS starts at 9:05. The SPS webpage for TOPS says 9:05. But the TOPS webpage says 9:10 first bell and 9:15 start. I called TOPS and told this to the woman in the office. She was a bit confused, checked with someone and said no, their first bell is at 9:10 and school starts at 9:15. She thanked me for pointing it out.

I have no idea what the real start time is for TOPS but I'm sure it'll all get ironed out, albeit with a bit of confusion, in the first couple of days of school.

On the upside, it looks like Salmon Bay starts at 9:05; it says it at both the pdf and the SPS website. The Salmon Bay website is months old so there is no update on their start time there.

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