Sun, Oct 9 10:58am
The proposed new calendar for this year has been announced and will be introduced (and planned to be voted on) at the next school board meeting.
- Proposed new calendar is attached
- You can also find it in the materials for the upcoming School Board Meeting here: https://www.seattleschools.org/board-meetings/october-12-2022-regular-board-meeting/
- Summary: The proposed new calendar would extend the school year through 6/30, maintain all current mid-winter and spring breaks, and push potential snow day make-ups to the first week of July.
If you'd like to provide feedback on this proposed calendar, here are some options:
- You can testify at the school board meeting: https://www.seattleschools.org/about/school-board/meetings/
- You can submit a comment through Let's Talk on the SPS website: https://seattleschools.org/
- You can email the school board generally (schoolboard@seattleschools.org), our local school board director, Lisa Rivera Smith (lisa.rivera.smith@seattleschools.org), and/or our neighboring school board director, Vivian Song Maritz (vsmaritz@seattleschools.org) directly.
The Board Action Report that was submitted with this proposed calendar provided this background:
"Under RCW 28A.330.100 the Board is to “fix the time for annual opening and closing of schools and for the daily dismissal of pupils before the regular time for closing schools.” The District has an affirmative obligation under its CBA with the SEA to bargain the school calendar. The School Board previously approved the 2022-2023 school year calendar on February 10, 2021. The start of the 2022-2023 school year was delayed by five school days due to ongoing negotiations between the District and SEA. RCW 28A.150.220 provides that as part of the basic education requirements in Washington state, the school district must make a minimum of 180 school days available to students each school year. As such, to make-up for the delayed start to the school year, the school year calendar must be revised to include 180 school days.
2 Labor and Employee Relations staff invited representatives from all thirteen (13) collective bargaining groups to review the revised 2022-23 calendar. A variety of options were considered including adjusting of breaks. SEA agreed to the attached calendar and the other Unions have not raised concerns or objections. Changes to the school calendars are mandatory subjects of bargaining. Any modifications to what are presented in this BAR must be negotiated through a formal bargaining process with labor partners. Changes would result in new language in the SEA/SPS Collective Bargaining Agreement or in the form of a new Memorandum of Understanding. Any future changes or modifications to these calendars would be brought forward to the Board for approval. "