Update: wouldn’t it have been better to start classes tomorrow, especially with how mild this Labor Day weekend has been? Please sign and share the petition!
There is plenty of momentum on the front to change the start date to after Labor Day. Why should you get involved? Here’s just one reason, from a comment left just last week:
Smiley Middle school 2nd floor was 103˚ by 10:30 this morning. By 11:30 the 2nd floor was 105˚ (that is with the school’s vent system and two fans going in the classroom).
Yesterday a student passed out at school and had to spend 4 hours in the emergency room from heat exhaustion and dehydration.
Here’s a petition that I’d like to ask you to sign to show your support for the change.
The link to the petition, if you’d like to share via email or Tweet or post to Facebook, is: http://www.change.org/petitions/dps-board-of-education-and-superintendent-tom-boasberg-change-the-school-year-calendar-2
A group of people is already starting to gather to offer public comment at our meeting on Thursday, September 15. Public comment starts around 6:30 p.m.
To get on the schedule, call the Board Office at 720-423-3210 by 5:00 p.m. on September 14.
Because we sometimes run late, if you’d like to bring your children (not a bad idea), please plan accordingly.
At 10:30am, it was 95 degrees in my daughter’s classroom. There are EPA standards for indoor air quality, not to mention the serious health risks associated with the oppressive heat in these schools. We need to do EVERYTHING we can to help set our kids (and teaching staff) up for success, classrooms registering this type of heat are unsafe and unproductive. I would like to see the report stating that it will cost $400 Million to improve the air quality and flow within these schools. Has anyone investigated swamp coolers? Large indoor fans that run with ice? Has an RFP been sent out? Is there potential grant money for this? Will the EPA help us out financially? Move the CSAP dates (if that’s really the issue) and let our kids start school after Labor Day.
The EPA…that’s a compelling thought. I think that if the President can get some movement on the jobs package he rolled out last night, especially with the focus on school upgrades and construction, we might be able to get some help. I think swampers could help a lot. Absent that, thought, I think the change in the start date will fix a lot.
The CSAP window is set by law, and it’s currently February and March. We have to choose a three-week window in that time frame. If we restructured end-of-year instruction, we could likely reduce the amount of test prep that happens in our schools. If the 4th grade class did some skills reinforcement at the end of the year, you wouldn’t need as much (hopefully, assuming there isn’t too much summer drop-off) before the 5th grade CSAP dates. Personally, I’d rather see the CSAP at the end of the year. Some schools are test-prepping for two weeks…I’ve even heard two months.