We recently announced for the upcoming school year in 2016-17, we are eliminating middle and high school pay-to-play athletics. We will no longer charge $80 for the first high school sport, $40 for the first middle school sport, or for additional sports. There will be no athletic participation fees, starting this fall 2016. (If you have already paid your fall 2016 athletics fees, a refund will be issued to you.)
Why is Project Free Education important?
I would like to share my last Walking in the Shoes experience of the school year. As you know, this year has been focused on spending time with students with unique circumstances.
This particular experience was with a loving, energetic young student named Jeighlen, a kindergartener at Birchwood Elementary鈥 and someone who happens to be homeless.
I鈥檇 like to share my recent experience of 鈥淲alking in the Shoes鈥 with a student in our Life Skills program. This program serves our students who have moderate to severe developmental disabilities and benefit from instruction focused on developing their transitional and job readiness. Depending on students’ specific needs, their learning plan might be focused on anything from practicing the most basic skills of self-care to building social skills and/or participating in arts and academic classes.
Walking in the Shoes of an LGBTQA student: 鈥淏e educated so you can educate others.鈥
I just sent an email to our staff, families and communities with an update on our facility projects. We are full of gratitude and excitement for our community鈥檚 support of our 2013 bond!
To get a full rundown of current projects, please read my message here.
What excites you? What do you have questions about?
I鈥檓 very excited and proud that today we have released details of our plans for start and end times in 2017-18.
I realize change can bring some challenges 鈥 for our families, students, staff and community. But I believe making a change to benefit student health, academic success, stress, mood, attendance, etc. (the list goes on) is change worth making.
鈥淎ll labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance
and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.鈥
鈥 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
On Monday, our community and country took a break from many of our usual routines in order to celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. King.
First, a big thank you to those of you who read and commented on my last blog from Nov. 6. I am so appreciative for your energy, questions, suggestions and encouragement. So many of you expressed 鈥渨e can do this!鈥 And of course, I agree.
One subject that keeps coming up, whether I鈥檓 in the grocery store or out on the soccer fields is start and end times for our schools. Many families are curious about our current thinking and whether we will pursue any kind of schedule change after we determined last spring (thanks to valuable feedback from families and staff) that our most recent start and end times proposal needed additional refinement.