Board Approves Restoring Instructional Time

The FGCS Board of Directors voted this evening to restore instructional time lost to weather closures with the following changes to the FGCS calendar:

• The FGCS school year will be extended by 3 days, ending the year on Wednesday, June 14(full day with 3:05/3:20 release times). This end date is consistent with the District's revised calendar. 
• Friday, April 14 is changed from a grading day to a regular school day (1:05 p.m. Fridayrelease time).
• Thursday, April 20 (one of the two days allocated for spring student conferences) is changed to a regular school day. Spring conferences will take place the evening ofThursday, April 20 and Friday, April 21. Friday, April 21 will remain a no-school day for students. 

The plan approved by the Board restores five of the nine school days lost to weather closures and makes sure FGCS is in compliance with state requirements for instructional time. The plan was developed by teachers and staff with the goal of maximizing instructional time without imposing undue hardships on students, family and staff.

Some of you may wonder why we did not choose to extend Fridays to full days. We did consider that option, but decided against it for several reasons: 

• Early-release Fridays provide crucial planning time for teachers who often have no other time during the school week. The nature of our program requires dedicated teacher time to develop curriculum, collaborate and coordinate with other teachers (particularly for Out & Abouts). Without Friday afternoons for planning, the nature and quality of our program would be diminished. 
• Friday afternoons are also a time our special education team meets for referrals and IEP meetings. The special education staff, including those who work in other schools, have built their schedules around this dedicated times. Changing this time could lead to delays in services if meetings had to be rescheduled, or would require us to hire substitute teachers to free up time for our staff to participate in these important meetings. 
• Extending Fridays to full days would require us to offer school lunch service, adding expenses to operate that program that are not provided for in our budget. 

We will send out an updated calendar reflecting these changes within the next two days. Thank you all for your patience as we have worked to develop this plan. Please contact Vanessa Gray at v.gray@fgcschool. org or 503-359-4600 if you have any questions.