STRIKE AFTERMATH: New Seattle Public Schools calendar next week

Today was a two-hours-early-dismissal day for Seattle Public Schools students – who are all now done for the day – and that was part of the calendar long before the Seattle Education Association strike. If you’re wondering how the six missed school days will be made up, and how that’ll affect the rest of the year – the district says you won’t have to wonder much longer:

Seattle Public Schools staff and the Seattle Education Association are working to finalize the 2015-16 school year calendar to adjust for the school days missed by the teacher strike. A revised calendar is expected early next week.

State law requires school districts conduct a school year of no less than 180 school days in such grades as are conducted by the school district, and 180 half-days of instruction, or the equivalent, in kindergarten. The district and its partners will need to meet that requirement and look for the best option for adjusting the calendar that works for families.

The new calendar will be posted on the district pages and added to the school calendars as soon as it has been agreed upon by SPS and SEA.

Mark September 23, 2015 (4:04 pm)

Hey SPS parents and others… A semi-unrelated comment to the strike, but a very related comment regarding school calendars. In previous years, all school calendars (the District calendar and all individual school calendars) offered the ability to sync to your personal or household calendar (on your computer or your phone) – pretty simple tech using the .ical or .ics format. With the change to new websites using the SharpSchools web platform, the new calendars no longer have that functionality. Personally, being able to have my children’s school calendars sync’d to my phone was super handy. Now, that is no longer possible. If you are missing this nice feature, please contact the District webmaster, Amy Markishtum, at webinfo@seattleschools.org.

lf September 23, 2015 (9:37 pm)

Hi WSB – I’m hearing that the new contract makes EVERY Wednesday (starting in year three) an early dismissal day? Is this true?

WSB September 23, 2015 (9:50 pm)

I don’t know about Wednesdays (have not gotten into the deep details of the contract and at this point don’t expect to) but in the 7:15 pm update here there is a mention of a weekly one hour late start OR one hour early dismissal:
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https://westseattleblog.com/2015/09/happening-now-union-meeting-in-south-park-to-review-tentative-agreement-decide-whether-to-suspend-strike/

Fauntleroy September 24, 2015 (8:07 am)

I know of two nearby school districts that have built into their school calendar an early release day one day every week. As much as it sounds like a pain, you get used to it and it’s actually very useful to have a week day afternoon for kids to schedule doctor appointments, music lessons or other activities.

WSB September 24, 2015 (8:18 am)

Fauntleroy – we mentioned Highline Public Schools, which has early release every Friday, in an earlier story’s comment thread when someone griped about yesterday’s long-scheduled early release. What’s the other one?