Important End of School Year Update

I had read this puzzling schedule for the last couple of days of school and wondered about it.  Here's an update from SPS on those last days (most important for high school parents and students):


After receiving feedback from schools about the difficulties surrounding early dismissal next week, we are making changes. Typically, all of our schools have the same last day, but given our November snow days, we need to extend High School until Thursday, which is causing transportation issues.

On Tuesday, June 21:
·         All elementary, K-8 and Middle Schools will have a one-hour early dismissal.
·          Chief Sealth High School and West Seattle High School will have a one-hour early dismissal.
·          Aki Kurose Middle School will release on normal schedule and NOT have an early dismissal.
·         Our eight other high schools will also release on normal schedule and NOT have an early dismissal.
On Thursday, June 23:
·         All middle and high schools will have a one-hour early dismissal.
We apologize for the late notice and confusion this has caused your staff and families. We hope this revised schedule, which was coordinated with schools by our Executive Directors of Schools and transportation department, meets your school’s needs.

For our middle school and high school buildings, we ask that you please notify your students and families about this change today or tomorrow. The District will send out a reminder via a School Messenger call next week.

Comments

Sue said…
Trust me. Confusing is right. I got so many conflicting emails from the middle and high schools about what was going on, I still had no idea til yesterday. I do love the way high schools stood their ground and stuck to the planned finals schedule in the face of district confusion here.

One would think, you know, that since the snow happened in November, and it is now JUNE that transportation and district administrators had some time to figure this one out. But perhaps I am assuming they think ahead? (I know, cheap shot)
6/17/11, 6:45 AM
Anonymous said…
Where did you get this update? My administration hasn't received it yet and it changes our schedule and plans a lot!

-need the words from the horses mouth
6/17/11, 10:16 AM
Melissa Westbrook said…
I received it yesterday in response to my request for clarification on it. I had seen the original schedule and thought, "Hmm" and forgot about it and then a reader e-mailed me and said, "What about this?" That's when I called the district.
6/17/11, 4:23 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tuesday Open Thread

The speaker list is up for the Board meeting tomorrow; not as packed as I thought with just four people on the waitlist. The majority of the speakers are speaking on high school boundaries (with several wanting to talk about Ballard High). There are only three of us speaking about the Green Dot resolution asking the City to not grant the zoning departures that Green Dot has requested.  It's me, long-time watchdog, Chris Jackins, and the head of the Washington State Charter Schools Association, Patrick D'Amelio.  (I knew Mr. D'Amelio when he headed the Alliance for Education and Big Brothers and Big Sisters; he's a stand-up guy.)
Read more

Breaking It Down: Where the District Might Close Schools

Update 2: an absolutely fabulous interactive map made by parent Beth Day (@thebethocracy on Twitter - she covers Board meetings and is fun to read).   end of update    Update 1: Mea culpa, I did indeed get Decatur and Thornton Creek mixed up. Thanks to all for the correction. end of update   I suspect some who read this post will be irate. Why do this? Because the district seems very hellbent on this effort with no oversight skid marks from the Board.    To clearly state - I do not believe that closing 20 schools is a good idea. I think they hit on 20 because they thought it might bring in the most savings. But the jury is still out on the savings because the district has not shown its work nor its data. I suspect closing schools and THEN leasing/renting them is the big plan but that means the district really has to keep the buildings up.   But this district, with its happy talk about "well-resourced schools" is NOT acknowledging the pain and yes, grief, that is to come fro
Read more

MEETING CANCELED - Hey Kids, A Meeting with Three(!) Seattle Schools Board Directors

 Update 2: So I have seen a message from President Liza Rankin on why she, Director Evan Briggs, and Director Michelle Sarju backed out of this meeting.  In a nutshell: - She says there was no organization to the meeting which is just not true. They had a moderator lined up and naturally the board members could have set parameters for what to discuss, length of meeting, etc. All that was fleshed out. - She also claimed that if the meeting was PTA sponsored, they needed to have liability insurance to use the school space. Hello? PTAs use school space all the time and know they have to have this insurance.  - She seems to be worried about the Open Public Meetings law. Look, if she has a meeting in a school building on a non-personnel topic, it should be an open meeting. It appears that Rankin is trying, over and over, to narrow the window of access that parents have to Board members. She even says in her message - "...with decisions made in public." Hmmm - She also says that th
Read more