Saturday, May 16, 2009

{Terrace View Elementary}

Attention Parents:

Terrace View Elementary did not fulfill there hours needed for the year so the school will need to remain in Session an extra 7 days. That means that the last day of school will be Monday, June 29th. We have not heard any official word form the principal as of yet but we should be hearing something soon. I talked to a school board member who did confirm this information. This only affects Terrace View Elementary.

If you have any questions please call the principal Dr. Adeyemo at 876-4266.

2 comments:

Darcy said...

The more I think about this, the more it just doesn't make any sense. ALL the CJUSD Elementary Schools are on the same traditional school year schedule. How is it that we're the only school affected then? I know the schools each have different start/finish times, but there isn't enough of a difference to make us go to school an extra 7 days!

I heard this morning that we are only 70 minutes short on instruction time, huh? How's that make any sense?

Anonymous said...

This has nothing to do with actual minutes for the school year. First, all school administrators turn in to the district each year a spreadsheet with their daily schedule on it. It is set up so that time adjustments will equal the total amount of minutes required each year. The state has yearly requirements for teaching time broken down in minutes.

Know that Terrace View does not have the same schedule as any of the other elementary schools in the district. All the other schools have a minimum day on Wednesday for staff development, etc. Terrace View does not have weekly minimum days. They do get the same minimum days for parent teacher conferences, end of the year and so forth.

Finally, Terrace View made the inadvertent mistake of scheduling too few minutes for their minimum days.

California Ed code states:

46114. (a) The minimum schoolday in grades 1, 2, and 3 in
elementary schools may be computed by determining the number of
minutes of attendance in any 10 consecutive schooldays and dividing
that number by 10. If the resulting quotient is 230 or more, the
pupils shall be deemed to have complied with Section 46112, even if
the number of minutes attended in any one schoolday is less than 230,
but not less than 170.
(b) The minimum schoolday in grades 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 in
elementary schools may be computed by determining the number of
minutes of attendance in any 10 consecutive schooldays and dividing
that number by 10. If the resulting quotient is 240 or more, the
pupils shall be deemed to have complied with Section 46113, even if
the number of minutes attended in any one schoolday is less than 240,
but not less than 180.
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=edc&group=46001-47000&file=46110-46119

Terrace View's minimum days were only 155 minutes. The state says these short days do not count toward a full school year. You should be glad there are only 7 days affected for the year! Think if every Wednesday and other minimum days were affected!

I heard a hefty fine was going to be put on the district unless they could make up the days. While the mistake happened at one school, the fine amount was based on the whole district daily attendance at every school. Fair? No, but what do you do? Should this have been caught by the school or the district? Probably, but take a look at the whole Ed Code sometime and you would be hard-pressed to find any person who knows everything about it.
The people who should be thanked are the district and school administrators who solved the problem quickly and without a lot of fuss, the teachers who were willing to work longer when the problem was explained, and the parents who continue to send their children to school for those last few days. This was a good example of how the community works together to solve problems. I think the lack of heat from Grand Terrace parents shows they are reasonable when they understand the problem was really no one's fault and that all stakeholders will sacrifice equally to solve the problem.
I choose to stay anonymous because I am an employee of the district.

Well done, Grand Terrace! I know that every school is going to double check this part of the schedule next year!