SPS to Close Two Hours Early
I am a little confused because the SPS website does not say this but the Times is reporting that SPS will close two hours early today. I verified this at the district headquarters and it is true.
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.)
Comments
Although if you drove in, you were told to take your kid back home.
If you have a story you're comfortable sharing, please send me in an email at brosenthal@seattletimes.com. I really appreciate it.
-Brian M. Rosenthal
Education reporter | The Seattle Times
http://www.twitter.com/brianmrosenthal
Can the school buses even get to their pickup zones without more warning than that?
Why did they open today at all?
Of course it's awkward, and I'm sure inconvenient for many but it's hardly the end of the world - nor does I think it warrants a Seattle Times "expose"
I know we like to make them the bad guys, but the people who work for the district are human like the rest of us and don't always make perfect choices - now and then, we can cut them some slack.
Crownhill (formerly posted as Someone)
Surely it cost more money for the school district and for those parents who had to take off work or stay home- to open two hours late & close two hours early- than it would have been just to be closed in the first place.
BTW no snow in Ballard
wondering
The kids at the high schools knew even earlier- they were told BEFORE their 11:00AM lunch break that school was closing after 3rd period so if they wanted to leave at 11am it was fine.
School just started at 10:00 am. I wonder what time the actual decision was made by the district for the early release and why it wasn't posted online earlier?
We did not receive the usual robo phone call for either the late arrival, nor for the early dismissal. What happens to the parents without email who are now used to counting on the robo phone calls?
We knew at 11AM that school was "about to close" because that is what Transportation told us. Our bus should have come at 1040AM today, and when it didn't, I called for a status update. I was told to go home, that the bus would not be coming, and that schools were about to close. Now, other buses going to our school made it there, apparently, so it's weird that our route was shut down while others proceeded.
The confusing part is that Transportation was also telling families that kids currently on buses were going to be returned home right away rather than delivered to school, so that left some families wondering what to do/when to be at the stop etc. I'm not sure that happened; I think buses with kids ultimately took them to school.
The thing to watch for this afternoon will be whether or not our three-tier bus system can handle this latest wrinkle. Two hours late and two-hour early dismissal doesn't give much time to run 3 routes. If I had a kid at a third-tier school, I would be asking my school's front office to monitor bus arrival times and send out alerts just so families know how late the buses will be this afternoon.
-math not weather!
Is the 27th the first day for making up classes?
Let it snow
Casting a wide net in the hopes of getting a variety of perspectives - positive and negative ("math not snow," I'd love to hear from you).
Again, I'm at brosenthal@seattletimes.com.
Thanks a lot,
Brian
And a big thank you to staff at L@L for going to this extra effort today!
(now, as to whether today counts as a school day or not - I have to agree with others that it shouldn't. The district terminated our bus service and told us to go home. That's a snow day. We were prepared to have our kid in school. Those who made it in were only there 2 hours, and if part of that was serving lunch, surely that can't count as a school day!)
south end teacher
Inclement Weather Days
The first inclement weather make‐up day is Jan. 27; 2nd, 3rd & 4th days added at year end; 5th day is Mar. 16.
But I can't find the official definition of what counts as a school day.
Anyone?
Also, next Tuesday's half day will be handled similarly... Just too much work for such little instruction time.
Current: RCW 28A.150.030 (Effective until September 1, 2011)
A school day shall mean each day of the school year on which pupils enrolled in the common schools of a school district are engaged in educational activity planned by and under the direction of the school district staff, as directed by the administration and board of directors of the district.
New definition: RCW 28A.150.203 (Effective on September 1, 2011)
"School day" means each day of the school year on which pupils enrolled in the common schools of a school district are engaged in academic and career and technical instruction planned by and under the direction of the school.
Under either definition, full-day parent teacher conferences are not considered a school day toward the required 180 days because the statute provides that all pupils need to be engaged in educational activity (until September 1, 2011) or academic and career and technical instruction (after September 1, 2011).
A late start, early release, or half day for parent teacher conferences is considered a school day toward the required 180 days.
Districts planning full day parent teacher conferences within a 180-day school year must apply for a waiver to be in compliance with the Basic Education Act. For more information contact Sarah Rich at sarah.rich@k12.wa.us or 360-725-6311.
-still waiting for flakes
We stood outside waiting as light snow fell for a little over a half an hour, but all of the kids were in good spirits. I knew we were one of the later stops, but we just got lucky that Lori passed on the information--no word directly from Transportation, but I am sure they were much busier than usual this morning. Several of us were hesitant to call Transportation directly as we had been told that any time you called about a particular route (in our case, #771) that the dispatcher needed to call the driver, the driver needed to find a safe place to pull over to take the call and it caused a lot of headaches.
But it would be great, Brian, to get clarification on what is the least disruptive way to get route-specific information--besides being lucky enough to get word from Lori!
I do think all of the schools were doing their best. Another parent told us her buses to downtown were really wacky as well (she was taking shuttles and ended up bailing and walking home) so I think NE Seattle might have been a tricky spot for all transportation today.
While we were there Bryant got word of the early dismissal so I signed my younger son out and we all got home safely. Last year we almost spun out going down 65th toward 25th when it was REALLY icy so all three of us were happy to be home safe and sound. :)
Tara
And yes, we did get a heavy snow shower in the north end around noon. It looked like snowmaggedon had arrived - but after an hour it stopped. I chained up for a bit to get around north of 90th, but south of 90th, you wouldn't have thought there had been any snow.
Emile
zb