The end of the semester for Lake Washington School District (LWSD) junior high and high schools has been changed from Jan. 27 to Feb. 3 due to last week’s snow days. District officials have not announced when they will make up the three lost days of instruction for all schools throughout the district, but generally, snow days are made up at the end of the school year, according to district officials.
LWSD community relations and communications coordinator Shannon Parthemer said most times the district will wait until mid-February to make a decision on make-up days in case more snow days follow.
LWSD is legally required to have 180 days of school and 1,000 hours of instruction. Three days were lost to last week’s snow and ice storms. The current last day of school for LWSD is Friday, June 22. If the make-up days are added to the end of the year, as Parthemer said they typically are, the school year would be extended into the last week of June.
LWSD communication director Kathryn Reith said there is a scenario that the district could make up the snow days by having classes during scheduled teacher inservice days, but that has happened only once during Reith’s seven years working for the district.
Parthemer said the people involved in deciding make-up dates are deputy superintendent of instructional services Dr. Traci Pierce, deputy superintendent of operational services Janene Fogard, director of human resources Pat Fowler-Fung and representatives from the Lake Washington Education Association, the district’s teachers union.
Additionally, a number of meetings have been rescheduled due to last week’s snow days:
• The mandatory information meeting for Stella Schola Middle School will be tonight (Jan. 25) from 7-9 p.m. in the Rose Hill Junior High School cafeteria, located at 13505 N.E. 75th in Redmond.
• The meeting for parents of incoming 2012 freshmen at Redmond High School, located at 17272 N.E. 104th in Redmond, will be Feb. 1 at 7 p.m.
• The mandatory information meeting for the new STEM school will be Friday from 7-9 p.m. at Redmond Junior High School, located at 10055 166th N.E. in Redmond.
• The Rose Hill Junior High School fifth- and sixth- grade parent information night will be Thursday from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at Rose Hill.
For more information, visit the LWSD website at www.lwsd.org.
