The JagWire

Dear Parents and Guardians,

I hope that you have all had a wonderful summer. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end and school is just around the corner. Over the past few days several parents have contacted me requesting schedule changes for their child. First, I need to say that the schedules are not supposed to be visible at this time because we are not done. We have had to do some pretty big changes in the last few days so we are still moving children around.

Second, the only schedule changes that we will consider are mistakes in your child’s schedule. For example, if your child has two core content classes (math, language arts, science, social sciences) or if they are missing one of the core content classes.

We will not make class changes at all for the following situations:

• Your child did not get the electives they were hoping for. As we have said through the entire process, a child is not guaranteed to get the electives that they forecasted for.

• Your child was placed in common core math and they want to be in compacted math. Students were placed in the classes that last year’s math teacher felt they would be most successful in. That decision was based on their classroom assessment scores, MAP assessment scores and their daily work. If a child is demonstrating the skills to possibly move up to compacted in the first quarter of the year, their math teacher will contact the administrator and make the suggestion.

• Your child is not in any classes with their friends. Unfortunately we cannot accommodate friend requests. The schedule is a very big puzzle and we just don’t have the time or resources to meet those requests.

• An 8th grade student was not in Spanish last year but they want to start it this year. The district has changed the way World Language is provided at the middle school level. If they were to start Spanish this year, they would only complete the first semester of high school and would have to take the entire thing over again next year.

• A child really wanted to have a specific teacher this school year. These requests are along the same line as asking to be placed in class with a friend. We do not have the time or resources to meet those requests.

I truly appreciate parents respecting the above information. If you do have questions, you are more than welcome to email me directly at jferraro@pps.net. After the school year starts, we will divide up the grade levels between myself and Nicole Ayala, our new assistant principal. Unfortunately, she is pretty swamped right now working on the master schedule.