FYI, Friday, October 9th is a No School Day
Update from District Communications (6 pm Tuesday)
SPS and SEA are working together on a new, revised school calendar...
So stay tuned...
end of update
Update from the Board office:
I have done some following up on your question regarding school on October 9th, and I have found that we are still working on revising the calendar, as it takes some time to work through with SEA and the other unions. We will notify families, schools, etc. once it is finalized.
end of update
UPDATE: Waiting for an answer from the district on this one because it seems there is NO clear answer.
To reiterate - I don't know what Friday, October 9th is but when I do, I'll put it up.
End of update
An alert reader brought this to my attention as it had not been on the district calendar this way. The reader said Eckstein teachers told her that it would be no school that day. I note that the district calendar page now says "No School - Teacher Work Day."
Mark your calendar accordingly.
SPS and SEA are working together on a new, revised school calendar...
So stay tuned...
end of update
Update from the Board office:
I have done some following up on your question regarding school on October 9th, and I have found that we are still working on revising the calendar, as it takes some time to work through with SEA and the other unions. We will notify families, schools, etc. once it is finalized.
end of update
UPDATE: Waiting for an answer from the district on this one because it seems there is NO clear answer.
To reiterate - I don't know what Friday, October 9th is but when I do, I'll put it up.
End of update
An alert reader brought this to my attention as it had not been on the district calendar this way. The reader said Eckstein teachers told her that it would be no school that day. I note that the district calendar page now says "No School - Teacher Work Day."
Mark your calendar accordingly.
Comments
Garfield and Franklin calendars say NO school on 10/9
I think RHS and BHS have it right.
And also I believe the day off between semesters is also now a school day.
I never go by what the district calendar says. :)
Planner
IMPORTANT DATE CHANGES!
October 9
School in Session
January 29
School in Session
Graduation 2015
The date for the graduation ceremony will change (TBD). Stay tuned!
Last Day of School -- TBD
BHS parent
School Day: Due to the late start October 9th will be a school day (it was previously a teacher professional development day)
Marmauset
-curious
Sigh.
I wouldn't single out SPS for ridicule in this regard. It seems like typical Seattle. The perfect is the enemy of the good, and the continuously screwed up best friend of the perfect.
------------------
Your statement makes no sense. Did you mean something else? I don't have any problems with the City of Seattle's website, nor King County's, nor the Library (singular).
So what specifically are you referring to?
The day before school started, 9/16, had no students but teachers were back in school, as a TRI day that replaced the 10/9 day, though it had likelylittle PD for most, and was, since it was unexpected and unplanned, likely just more classroom prep, etc. Though most teachers had already prepped before going on strike, sooo....
As for the Day Between Semesters, which is a day for MS and HS teachers to grade finals and such (though, interestingly, teachers do NOT get a Day After Second Semester to grade: that day after school went away a couple of years ago - half an hour after the bell rings on the last day of school, when many teachers likely have finals to grade, they are officially done for the year....?), that Day Between Semesters is gone, now, as well, so teachers will have to grade those finals on the weekend or whenever.
-flibbertigibbet
Individual school sections of the website lost most of their functionality after the vendor change. I assume that is because school staff don't know how to use the new system; and there are no resources to train them or restore all the old content. One could infer from other comments that they also haven't figured out how to update their calendar. (No such thing as "just a calendar" -- it's undoubtedly a huge database-driven system with complicated admin utilities and Byzantine scheme of admin privileges.) But I am guessing the new website costs more.
So teachers, who are by state regs now (or soon) expected to offer students MORE instructional time (new 1080 hours of instruction) will have LESS non-instructional time in which to prepare and collaborate.
Most industrialized nations have their teachers instruct maybe 800 hours, paying them for non-instructional time so they can grade, plan, collaborate....
The US? Not so much.
Washington? Less and less.
I know one ELA teacher who had 157 students last year and has 167 this year. 175 by 2017? With no time to grade 525 pages of essays each time they're assigned? To meet with colleagues to plan how to fold that year's standards into lesson plans? To talk to students or parents?
The assumption made explicit by taking away the day after the last day of school is that teachers work for free, and do it often, and it's now built into their workload. No contracted time to do aught but instruct, so please do all those other tasks on your own time.
They want teachers to learn new standards, collaborate, observe each other, mentor...They just don't want to pay for it.
I hope citizens can take this to the statehouse. It's a travesty, and students will continue to bear the brunt of it as this trend worsens. Teachers and other educators are too busy, now, to do much else but try and do their best for students in these times: the citizenry must carry the banner, rally, and bring justice to this system.
Its that engagement with the families of their students, is not a priority.
Which we already knew even if we dont get past the example of how they run their community meetings, given their penchant for limiting the sharing of concerns by dividing into small groups.
I really dont know what it would take to change the culture.I dont think we would fare any better with elected superintendent than we do with the school board, but we have to get away from so much testing.
I have wondered when the district was going to inform parents.
A Teacher
The old website was not ADA-compliant and posed access problems for families. So, the upgrade wasn't simply a change for convenience or the quest for a more perfect site.
-- equity matters
-- equity matters
But the part of the website that is the calendar? I can't believe that can't be working correctly. That's bottom-line info for parents.
- North-end Mom
This from Ingraham today
"Calendar Changes – no news from the central office yet on make-up days in the calendar."
-What?
SEA and SPS have to negotiate the days. I think Stacey Howard said three automatic days are the built-in snow days which are the days between semesters, and two days tacked on to the end of the year. Those days are agreed upon in the contract. The other days have to be negotiated. They could not negotiate the days until after the teachers ratified the contract. I am guessing the 10/9 day is a school day as the teachers had a TRI day the day after the TA was reached.
Also, the criticism by A Teacher that the real reason we had a prep day on 9/16 was because the district wasn't ready to start school is another example of a blatant lie, meant to be inflammatory against the district, without any proof. The real reason we didn't have school on 9/16 was because we contract our buses and the bus company needs 24 hour notice to get things rolling. We could not give them the notice on 9/15 by 7 AM because the SEA board and RA had not approved the contract. They did not get the contract to approve until that afternoon. If the district would have ordered the buses in the morning to start the next day, they would have been criticized for that. They were already criticized for mentioning that school would start on the 17th before the RA approved the TA. I don't think the district gets everything right, but I wish people would pay attention to the facts and not blame the district for every single thing.
QA Parent
That parents (and this blog) had to practically goad them into doing so is sad.
So no, I don't blame the district for "every single thing" but if they communicated properly that would happen by far fewer people. They set themselves up for this.
Some people were annoyed that we didn't start school right away and thought it was the teachers' fault for not being ready. I am clarifying that the teachers were ready to work. The district was not ready. Stacey Howard said they weren't ready. I'm just clarifying it wasn't a teacher problem.
A Teacher
From SPS: SPS and SEA have finalized the 2015-16 school year calendar to adjust for the school days missed by the teacher strike.
Pending the School Board's approval October 7 - the following days will be now be regular school days:
Fri., Oct. 9
Fri., Jan. 29
Wed., Feb. 17, Thurs., Feb.18, and Fri., Feb. 19. This is a shortened mid-winter break.
Fri., June 24
At least we don't have school Monday, June 27th!