2017-2018 Bell Times

From SPS Communications:

SEATTLE – Seattle Public Schools today expressed their appreciation for $2.3 million in one-time funding that allows the district to implement a two-tier school schedule for the 2017-18 school year:

“The City Council voted yesterday to approve one-time funds to move us to this new two-tier bus schedule. We are grateful to Mayor Murray for bringing this issue forward  as a city priority and the City Council for finding a thoughtful funding solution. Changing to a two-tier bell schedule will eliminate the latest or third tier of school start and end times, which has been a hardship on many of our families. 

We also want to thank and recognize the many families who shared their perspectives and concerns about the bell time schedule with us. The final schedule reflects the varied needs and perspectives of our families, students, staff and partners.”

The final bell schedule for Seattle Public Schools is posted online here. The 2017-18 school calendar is also posted online.
End of communication

I'm a bit baffled.  There are about 8 elementaries that will start at 8:55 am rather than 7:55 am.  I get Loyal Heights because they are at John Marshall interim but I'm not clear on the rest.

Most of the K-8s will start at 8:55 except Broadview-Thomson and South Shore. 

All the middle schools will start at 8:55 except for Denny (presumably because they are next to Sealth and have to start at a different time).

The high schools start at either 8:45 or 8:55 am (presumably depending on access to an athletic field).

Comments

Anonymous said…
Decatur is later because it is the same campus as Thornton Creek so would be a nightmare to have same bell times.

NE mom of 3
Anonymous said…
When/how did the 60 minute early release turn into 75?

- Bob
Anonymous said…
An extra 20 min a day minus 75 minute early release = an extra 15 minutes a week? We endured a strike and lost valuable instructional time for what amounts to an extra 3 minutes a day for students?

Wha?
Anonymous said…
@ Wha?, it's actually 25 min (add the 20 min to Wed before subtracting the 75), but yes, it still seems like a lot of disruption for an as-yet-not-justified change. I could be wrong, but I think it was the district that wanted this, not the union. Maybe it was a case of "fine, if you're going to get a raise, we're going to make you work longer days!" There was never any clear messaging from the district as to how those longer days would help, and as far as I know there's still no word on how middle and high schools will work them into their more complicated schedules.

Value added?
alex said…
And, we were told the elementary school start time would be 8 am under the two tier model, but it's 7:55 am for most schools. So, all that work to have school start at the SAME time next year that it starts this year? It's a win in that it's not 10 minutes earlier, but what happened to 8 am? Tardies will still be a problem, as they were this year.
Anonymous said…
Posting this to see if I haven't missed something:

Option K-8 middle school students will have 75 minutes LESS class time in 2017-18 than 2016-17. Going from 5x6.5 to 4x6.5 + 1x5.75. Option K-8 elementary will now be in line with the rest of elementary schools.

Option K-8 middle school will now have 20x5 = 100 minutes/week less class time than standard middle schools. That's a lot of class time, will be impressed if they can come up with a solution that keeps K-8 middle on track with standard middle schools.

K-8 Parent
Anonymous said…
It was the district that added the 20 minutes/day, and the teachers only agreed to it after some of that time was set aside for additional training/collaboration.

Yes, I am still angry about the extra 20 minutes a day. I think if it was well thought out it could have helped the high schoolers get the extra credits they need for graduation.

But the fact that they added it to elementary schools too and insisted that it had to be instructional time (not added to lunch), and then keeping it despite the financial difficulties the state legislature has put us in this year, it is obvious that it is yet another meaningless SPS horse and pony show.

-NW mom
Anonymous said…
Thank you city. 2 tiers is less crazy-making for your citizens.

West
Anonymous said…
Pushing ES later also pushes MS/HS later. It's bad enough they are now starting at 8:55. As someone who did not support the flip, I'd gladly flip back (And I don't need yet another link to the same sleep research. Really, I don't. Enough.).

early riser
Anonymous said…
Very pleased that the city recognized this is a strong and necessary cause to support SPS. The three-tier system was destructive for many reasons, and all of them impacted our students. Thank you to the families who testified and thank you to the politicians who put aside the Ed Reform and Ed Levy politics and just got this pragmatic donation done.

EdVoter


Lynn said…
Far from increasing instructional time for high school students, the longer day reduces it for Garfield students.

From Garfield's PTSA: Advisory is official for next year. We have heard from Mr. Lovre the following: it will be four times per week, 40 minutes each session. Each advisory will have a teacher and contain all four grades of students. Two days will be designated for travel (that is, students getting a pass from a teacher to come to that teacher’s advisory for extra help/etc.), one day for team-building/bonding, and one for curriculum. More details will be delivered from the school.

20 added minutes per day less a 75 minute early release less 160 minutes of advisory is 2.25 fewer hours in class every week. Over the 36 week school year this is 13.5 days less instruction than students receive this year. Tell me again how this improves academic outcomes.
JLardizabal said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
JLardizabal said…
K-8 Parent is right. K-8 schools do not have the added 20 minutes per day relative to last year.
Anonymous said…
Wow. Four times per week? A net loss of over 2 hours a week from the existing class time??

ugh
Anonymous said…
Wow, that new Garfield schedule is nuts. Core classes will be shorter than they already are so that students can spend more time in non-academic classes doing teambuilding and working on some mysterious grade-and-ability-spanning advisory curriculum? Whose idea was this, and where's the evidence that this was needed--or that it's going to help?

gimme outahere
Anonymous said…
It could be that Garfield is using advisory time to fulfill state requirements for social-emotional learning.

Flummoxed
Anonymous said…
You know the best way to support my child's social/emotional well being? Providing appropriately challenging classes, with enough time to adequately cover academic skills and content. Talking to kids about stress, when reduced class time is adding to their stress, is kind of backwards.

ugh


seattle citizen said…
Teachers benefit from weekly collaborative time. It's a good thing.
Charmine said…
Teachers don't have to have weekly collaborative time ***during the school day***. Elementary schools get out at 2:30. Teachers couldn't collaboratively plan after that???? Seriously? Or on a Friday afternoon? Look, our teachers are already forced to do a zillion ridiculous things. Be in your classroom at this and this time. Do not leave campus between such and such hours even if you have no obligations. Use MTSS (bwah ha ha!!!). Beginning teachers out to be paid a living wage, for sure. But there is no reason why a group of certificated professionals with union and family support couldn't demand a decent wage AND hold their collaborative planning and training time at some time other than in the middle of the school day. You just watch families struggling this fall. Struggling to find extra childcare on the one freak, weakly early release day. Families who do not have the money for that kind of thing. Families who do not have jobs with flextime and understanding employers. Families who are already struggling. Giving teachers collaborative planning time in the middle of the school day disproportionately hurts families with less money and less flexibility and less control over their circumstances. So, we see where SPS is going with this big equity push. Families with nannies or who can afford to have a parent stay home and not work are not going to suffer from this early release day. Other families? Yow. Za.
TM parent said…
Thurgood Marshall has a later start time because it draws from all over the south half of the city, meaning extra long bus rides for elem students.
SusanH said…
Yeah, the Garfield advisory thing is painful. Please, just let my high schooler attend his core classes, then come home and do other things. Having to do team building and some mysterious "advisory curriculum" is such a waste of time. I guess it might end up being mainly used as study hall, but again, my teen would rather study at home.
seattle citizen said…
Charmine, most developed nations only make their educators be in front of students for something like 650-800 hours of instructional time per year. But the US averages 1050. The non-instructional time those non-US teachers have is used for collaboration and other important non-instructional tasks...all done during the regular school day.
This is accomplished by hiring enough educators to cover classes when other educators are not teaching.
We don't do that.
Maybe we could advocate for that model instead of making long days longer for educators.
Jet City mom said…
Do you have a source Seattle citizen?
The info I am finding contradicts that.


"Cathy Hughes, 45, is a law tutor at the University of Bristol. Her twins, William and Archie, 12, attend Monkton Coombe School near Bath, and have to be in school by 8.15 am and finish at 6pm. “After school they have prep or activities every day, so always finish at six. They also have Saturday morning school,” she explains."
Charmine said…
Sure, @seattle citizen, we could set our schools up like Finland. But I'm not gonna hold my breath. At least teachers have a union to bargain for them. What do the kids have? Bupkis. And the parents? Nada. How many elementary school kids will go home from school to an empty home in the fall? How many 6-year-olds will just take care of themselves until their teenage 1/2 siblings get home from high school? Which kids are left at school on early release day once a month after the rest all leave on their buses or get picked up? At my school some are always forgotten. So nice of SPS to make that happen once a week.

Monday's child is fair of face,
Tuesday's child is full of grace,
Wednesday's child is full of woe.
Anonymous said…
Would be nice to know how SPS and parks and rec are going to coordinate for field times so high schoolers do not have to miss their classes in order to participate in athletics, which are NOT just about athletics but about social-emotional health as well (a sense of belonging at school, physical activity which boosts emotional health-stress management etc.)

SPS working with Metro to ensure sufficient buses at this rush hour time for high schoolers?

Any clue on this?

Concerned parent
Anonymous said…
The Center School is listed to start at 8:55 and release at 3:45. All students have to fulfill their PE requirements elsewhere since they do no have any type of athletic facilities. Did SPS just forget about that?
Also, they are subjected to the whims of downtown traffic (which has gotten noticeably worse in the past two years). Somedays my kid doesn't get home until after 4 pm and that's with a 3:15 release this year (last year was 3 pm, which was great!--home by 3:30 also everyday).
I'm guessing he'll be lucky to make it home by 5 near year.
So much for after school activities and homework. Grrr.

MadValley
Anonymous said…
Charmaine,

I get that you're passionate about this and all but quoting that nursery rhyme is hilariously over-the-top. Following this, I suppose it's provided a solution for MadValley and Center School: the next line "Thursday's child has far to go," just like the students of the Center School. So clearly they should have Thursdays off for extra physical education. :D

Now, let's discuss the privilege of those children born on Sunday, who have the audacity to be healthy AND wealthy AND gay...

-Pollyanna
Anonymous said…
I don't at all understand the description of Garfield's new "advisory" period. What the heck? Can anyone please explain what exactly this will look like for students? I mean, what they'll actually be DOING?

40 minutes 4 times a week is a lot of time. Hoping they can at least get some homework done.

-GHS parent
Anonymous said…
Does anyone know why K-8 doesn't have the extra 20 minutes like all the other schools?
Confused
Lynn said…
Jet City Mom - see page three of this document: http://www.oecd.org/education/skills-beyond-school/EDIF%202014--N22%20(eng).pdf


Anonymous said…
I'm shocked at the amount of time dedicated to advisory at Garfield next year. That's ridiculous. If it's anything like what's currently at Washington, it's a complete waste. And if you're thinking that your child will be able to make use of the time to do homework, think again. At WMS, if a kid is caught doing homework during advisory, the homework is confiscated for 24 hours, often rendering it impossible to turn in on time or to work on in the assigned class that day. Maybe that's just my kid's advisory teacher, but that's what's happened for him.

Especially with the new 24-credit requirement, we don't have time to wasted on this, but my impression is that there's no point in trying to fight Howard on anything. Thoughts?

-Seattle parent
Tina said…
What do students do in an advisory class? I've never heard of this!
Anonymous said…
Charmine,
We are paid for 30 minutes after the bell rings. It takes 15 minutes for all of my students to be picked up on most days. That leaves 15 minutes for quality PD and that is a joke. I work many extra hours, we all do, but you can't schedule PD during times teachers are not being paid to work. When I first began teaching (20 years ago) they used to pay for PD on non-student days (before school, during the school year, and at the end of the year). We don't get those days anymore, but the need to engage in quality PD has not gone away because the funding did. This system is a direct result of the state not adequately funding education. Teachers don't want these early release days any more than you. We have young children, too.
TS
Anonymous said…
Lowell previously requested to be on tier 3 due to the medically fragile program; they presumably now start at 8:55 rather than 7:55 for the same reason.

Seconding the comments about loss of time for K-8 middle schhol students. I was wondering if that is a mistake, although it would be a pretty big one.

Mom of 4

Anonymous said…
I'm another parent concerned over the questionable need/time spent for four advisory periods at Garfield. Is this a Garfield or district decision? SPS Principals seem to enjoy astonishing latitude within their schools beyond hiring. To be fair, we are new to both Seattle and public schools so it may be more typical than I assume.

FNH
Anonymous said…
This new advisory at Garfield for 40 min per day 4 times a week (160 minutes per week) is making me crazy. IMO and from my observation at WMS, advisory is a bogus waste of time. As an example, one advisory was spent making a circle of chairs. Not joking.

As far as whether this is a district mandate, I don't think it is. I haven't seen it at my other child's SPS high school, and haven't heard about it from others on this blog or elsewhere.

Why would they add this time-intensive and worthless advisory at Garfield at a time when A) the new 24-credit requirement is being added so time is at a premium, B)the new bell times/early dismissal Wednesdays are being added so time is at a premium, and C)Garfield is the HCC pathway school for the district where many AP classes are taught and time is at a premium.

Is this another effort to drive HCC kids away from the only HCC pathway high school the district currently offers? Really unfair and frustrating, especially after open enrollment. is there anything that can be done to change this at Garfield for next year?

-Seattle parent
Anonymous said…
What do students think about the added advisory? How will they force students to attend? What's to keep them from skipping out en masse?

-?
Anonymous said…
What about teacher planning time? Doesn't it cut into their time as well?

-?
Anonymous said…
At least at WMS, advisory carries a pass/fail grade. I'm not sure what it would look like at Garfield, but if it's similar to WMS it wouldn't be possible to skip en masse and just do homework in the library (I wish). Attendance is taken, unexcused absences are recorded, a fail is possible, etc.

Also, teachers are all over the map on what advisory is about. Some think it's really serious, and they confiscate homework if a student is using advisory as a study hall. Other teachers are lax about it and let kids do what they want- homework, chat, whatever.

The whole thing is crazy, and such an insane waste of time in high school. We thought it would be over at the end of middle school, but apparently not...

-Seattle parent
Anonymous said…
For those wondering about the shortened day for K-8, the change was included in the Collective Bargaining Agreement, Article IX, Section A, Length of School Workday (p 82):

K-8 School Day. Beginning in 2017-18, all K-8s will follow the elementary school schedule with equivalent student instructional minutes and equivalent staff work hours for elementary and middle school staff working at K-8 sites.

news2me
Anonymous said…
Nathan Hale has advisory and it has worked well for students , in our experience. Students develop close relationships with faculty and peers, work on projects , seek extra help if needed etc. If important issues come up, they can be discussed in advisory. My student has a designated school counselor who helps with course planning and college planning, but also her teacher from advisory who has known her for several years. I am surprised by the negativity and cynicism here.
- thumbs up
Rebecca said…
@ Jet City Mom -

The quote you cite is from a private school parent in a school in the UK. As a Brit who went to a mix of private and public school in Britain, I can tell you that it's standard practice in private day schools there to stay at school to do homework (called "prep") - they will also invariably get two longer recesses (morning and afternoon) plus an hour for lunch, and a break after regular lessons, before prep - probably with tea (my school served traditional jam sandwiches and sweet milky tea). Kids in state schools in the UK for the middle/high school years are in school ~8:45-3:45, but for more weeks of the year, and with significantly longer lunch periods.
Anonymous said…
thumbs up, I for one don't have a problem with advisory once per week, but 4 x 40 mins/week is a colossal waste of time.

We are coming from a private international school with similar scheduling to the UK school described. Our school day is 7:45-3:35 with a one hour lunch break (BUT, kids only have a half hour to eat, the other half is a break or optional 3rd language class). Kids are assigned an advisor for the duration of Middle and Upper school and advisory is once per week, Monday morning. Truth be told, kids think it is a waste of time there also.

Last year our school instituted a Friday morning period for teacher planning. Students can sleep in at home or, if they arrive on campus at the usual time, attend study hall in the lunchroom. This change was made unilaterally by admin with zero input from parents, and announced last minute too. There were initial grumblings from parents but as it didn't necessarily disrupt PARENTS' schedules, it died down quickly.

Our Monday and Fridays have a different bell schedule to accommodate the extra periods. On those days the advisory/study hall period is created by shaving 5 minutes off each of the remaining eight periods (45 v. 50 mins). I'm curious how the advisory schedule at Garfield will work.

Also, when my younger child and I visited Washington MS this week, the counselor (a substitute since the official counselor is out on maternity leave) mentioned they are thinking of moving to a 4 advisory/wk schedule as well. Sigh.

My excitement about the kids living and attending school in Seattle is abating a bit, I confess. We are committed to this adventure for at least one year, and if it doesn't work out we will return to our current school.

FNH
Anonymous said…
A committee of SEA members from SP schools and district office staff have been meeting this past year to discuss what bell schedules will look like, especially with the 24 credit graduation requirements. While for some reason Garfield is the main school being discussed here, it is not the only school adding it next year. It would be nice if the negative tone did not always seem directed at Garfield whenever a high school is discussed. Surely the other Seattle High school's, their principals and staff are not perfect!
-Anonymous
Anonymous said…
A committee of SEA members from SP schools and district office staff have been meeting this past year to discuss what bell schedules will look like, especially with the 24 credit graduation requirements. While for some reason Garfield is the main school being discussed here, it is not the only school adding it next year. It would be nice if the negative tone did not always seem directed at Garfield whenever a high school is discussed. Surely the other Seattle High school's, their principals and staff are not perfect!
-SPS Staff member
Anonymous said…
This school year Ballard HS had 50 minute classes and an advisory period. Looks like they are changing class time to 55 minutes and keeping the advisory period which has been changed from 20 minutes to 15 minutes.

M,T,Th,F
8:45-9:40 1st
9:45-10:40 2nd
10:50-11:45 3rd

11:50-12:20 1st Lunch
12:25-1:20 4th Period

11:50-12:45 4th Period
12:50-1:20 2nd Lunch

1:25-2:20 5th
2:25-3:20 6th

3:20-3:35 DAM Time (Daily Academic Minutes - includes short announcements)

N by NW
Unknown said…
Yeah, the Garfield advisory thing is painful. Please, just let my high schooler attend his core classes, then come home and do other things. Having to do team building and some mysterious "advisory curriculum" is such a waste of time.

goldenslot
gclub online
Anonymous said…
So, I'm still not clear on what the advisory at Garfield (or any other school) is specifically designed to do, but the reason I brought up the mandated social-emotional standards is because they have to be taken care of somewhere. Meaning, if there is no advisory class or mandated health class or other place to put the social-emotional curriculum, it will be taught in advisory - or English, science, math, what have you. You may want to ask someone in the know exactly why the advisory class was formed and whether they are covering some kind of state-mandated material. It's probably just as annoying to the teachers as it is to you and the students. Just a thought.

Flummoxed
Anonymous said…
What mandated social-emotional standards/curriculum?

-not clear
Lynn said…
There is a mandated health class in high school. It's a graduation requirement.
Anonymous said…
SEL Standards:

http://www.k12.wa.us/Workgroups/SELB-Meetings/SELBWorkgroup2016Report.pdf

Flummoxed
Lynn said…
Those are the recommendations of the work group. Have they been adopted by the legislature?
seattle citizen said…
Jet City mom - I was referring to instructional time teachers deliver, not instructional time students receive. Two different things. You example suggests a student has a long day; that could well be. But what I am discussing is the amount of time per day that a teacher spends instructing, or directly serving students, as opposed to planning, grading, collaborating etc.

Here is a link to an article about the issue:
Wall Street Journal - Number of the Week: U.S. Teachers’ Hours Among World’s Longest
seattle citizen said…
Charmine, I get your issue, the struggles parents face, and I'm not trying to negate it. But to "solve" it by mandating teachers spend more hours after the usual day is, well, getting in the way of THEIR families and THEIR lives. Most already have enormous workloads beyond contract time; mandating, say, a ten-hour day for them to do professional development doesn't seem like an equitable solution.

Have you written your legislator about the issue?
Lynn said…
I believe elementary teachers currently teach 300 minutes per day. (Six hours less 30 minutes for lunch and 30 minutes for prep.) The reasonable way to add another 75 minutes of non-teaching time over the course of the week would have been to add twice as many specialist teachers to each school. The current allocation is .125 FTE per classroom teacher. Doubling that would increase our FTE (and salary expense) by 11%.

I don't know if the disruption of next year's plan is worthwhile or not. Maybe it would have been better to increase guaranteed recess time by 15 minutes per day and pay someone other than teachers to cover recess duty. That seems like a good trade off to me.

Only the legislature can provide the funding we need for more teachers.
Anonymous said…
Thanks for the info, Flummoxed. I wouldn't refer to it as a mandate at this point. As Lynn pointed out, it looks like only guidance. Has the Seattle School Board adopted the recommendations of the working group?

-not clear
Anonymous said…
@ not clear, another thing to note is that SEL doesn't require its own HS class (e.g., advisory), but should rather be integrated into regular learning throughout elementary, middle and high school. As the guidance report notes, "the most growth was found among students receiving classroom-based interventions administered by their regular classroom teachers." Trying to cover this via an advisory period that you're subjected to every year for 4 years of HS is nonsensical. (And since they are planning to include all grade mixed advisory groups, delivering an advisory curriculum, will they develop 4 years worth of material, or will students "learn" the same thing every year for four years?)

HS soon
Anonymous said…
So the Garfield advisory covers state-mandated social-emotional learning? I didn't know that. Of course, you can't "teach" social-emotional learning like that, explicitly, in discrete blocks of time. That's just ridiculous. It WILL be a waste of time. And it's such a shame, as it's quite a lot of time they'll be wasting.

I''m sure the teachers are just as annoyed. I don't blame them at all. But it's just not been made clear to parents why it has to be SO very much time, and HOW exactly they will carve it out of an already over-full school day? I do wish they'd explained it better. Or at all.

Still have my fingers crossed they can do something useful with at least some of that time, like homework. Or knitting. Or .... even staring out a window and dreaming of better things.

-Garfield parent
Anonymous said…
Was the Garfield PTSA involved in the decision to waste 2 1/2 hours on "advisory" classes every week, or were they just reporting what they were told would happen? Did they ask any questions about why this change was made, or make any efforts to engage parents in discussion on the matter (even after-the-fact)? This is

crazy-making
Anonymous said…
Advisory is going to be 4 days at Washington next year. Staff voted and it passed at around 60%. It will be at the beginning of the day for around 20-25 minutes. This will be helpful as there were so many late buses this year. IF your kid is lucky enough to get an advisory teacher who believes in advisory, really cares about the kids, it can be a great thing for some students. For my kid to feel like he has someone to turn to, to go to if he needed anything at all, it has made a huge difference in his 6th grade year. His advisory teacher has managed to create a community of kids from diverse backgrounds that have gotten to know each other, have done lots of community building activities, and he says he knows his advisory teacher likes all of the kids and really cares about them. This teacher is a new 6th grade teacher who likely won't be staying at the school next year which I know my kid will be very upset about if that is the case. My other student has an advisory teacher who makes it very clear to all that they do not support or believe in advisory so it has been a completely different experience. Done right advisory, at the middle school anyways, can be a great thing.

WMS 2
Anonymous said…
@crazy-making

It is not a requirement of any SPS PTSA to be consulted or involved decision making for building schedules. However, buildings do have BLTs (Building Leadership Teams) whose body includes parents who should have an equal voice. Are you sure that did not happen and if so what is your proof with regards to Garfield?

Are there official communications from all the other Middle and High schools that made an effort "to engage parents in the discussion on the matter (even after-the-fact)" available for others to see? If so, would others please tell everyone where they might see or get a copy of them versus someone writing about what they've heard? Do the new "advisory" included schedules for all the Middle and High schools for the 2017-18 school year appear somewhere official? Is please tell where.

And here again is another complaint about a "slight by Garfield." Does standing on that soapbox never cease?

-SPS Staff
Anonymous said…
As to advisory periods, someone note BHS DAM time. It is not an advisory period; it is simply an organizational period at the end of the day. Students are supported in making sure they've got a grasp of their homework and are provided time to take care of their other administrative needs. Getting paperwork, filling out forms, going to lost and found, etc. It is new this year and replaces a mandatory 20 minute reading period added to second period.Roosevelt already has something similar, Rider Time. It's 15 minutes. Odd at Roosevelt is 10 minute passing periods. Students told me this was added due to student stress levels and suicide attempts.

Sub
Anonymous said…
@ SPS Staff, uhhhh, I never state that sort of consultation didn't happen, so I don't know why you're asking me to give proof that it didn't. I asked whether it happened--which is usually something you do if you don't already know the answer. I also never suggested it was a requirement that they be consulted...although for such a big change (and similar Garfield changes) it seems like a good idea.

If the PTSA only heard about this after the fact and then relayed the info to parents (FYI, it's also posted online), I would expect the PTSA to ask questions before just posting the info as a "here's the new schedule!" type of item. Maybe ask for information about how the new schedule was developed, why they think it's necessary, what will be included in that new curriculum, etc. Then maybe ask for parent and student feedback on the proposed schedule, so they can relay that info to school admin and potentially address any concerns ahead of time.

I don't know why you see this as some sort of Garfield witch hunt. Information posted by the PTSA indicates a big change, a change that many see to be a change for the worse. Are you saying people shouldn't be allowed to talk about that known change if they don't have knowledge of whether or not similar changes are made elsewhere? We already know GHS has no problem making its own big changes over the summer, so I don't see any reason not to discuss whatever comes up. If another school had posted this instead, people would be discussing that school instead. It's the issue, not the school--but once again, the school happens to be Garfield. But you can pretend this is all anti-Garfield if it makes you feel better.

crazy-making
Anonymous said…
I'll ask again since no one has addressed this so far ... Would be nice to know how SPS and parks and rec are going to coordinate for field times so high schoolers do not have to miss their classes in order to participate in athletics, which are NOT just about athletics but about social-emotional health as well (a sense of belonging at school, physical activity which boosts emotional health-stress management etc.)

SPS working with Metro to ensure sufficient buses at this rush hour time for high schoolers?

Any clue on this? School board members reading this? SPS communications or staff reading this? Any other informed parent/community member?

Concerned parent

Anonymous said…
@ concerned parent, was field availability the reason HS students had to miss classes before? I though it was a transportation issue, not a parks and rec issue. I suppose they'll need to reserve the fields for a little later than before, though, which means more competition for space in a smaller window of time. It's not only high school students who need fields--middle school students often do, too. Then you also have elementary-age teams, private schools, club sports, oh, and regular old community members who also like to get out and exercise in the neighborhood facilities they fund with their tax dollars...

I agree that it would be great if SPS is having a conversation with the city about this, but I don't feel that HS sports trump everything else...

field squeeze

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