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Rumor Mill – January 8, 2016

Published January 8, 2016

The purpose of this section is to answer any questions parents, teachers or community members might have regarding the school district and to set the record straight in regards to any rumors that might be circulating.

If you have a question or have heard a rumor that you would like for us to address, simply SEND US your questions and we will respond to them in upcoming issues of InFocus. Below are some of the questions we have received since our last issue.

Is the district planning to move high schools to a block schedule?

There are no plans to move high schools to a block schedule. That being said, nearly all high schools will use a block-type schedule on testing days during the two testing windows this semester.

I heard the other day that not only will there be a new elementary school built in the Clayton Arnold/Critz Lane area of Thompson’s Station, but also a new middle school. A few questions about this: What high school will this middle school feed into? What neighborhoods will go to these new schools? When are the schools expected to be complete?

The proposed school will be an elementary and a middle school within the same building. Each will have its own administration, cafeteria, gymnasium and library. There will be some common areas within the building that will be available to both. Once the land purchase is finalized the process of zoning will begin. The schools are scheduled to open for the 2017-18 school year.

The school year begins very early in August, with quite a few snow/weather days built in that have never been taken, leading to the VERY inconvenient decision in the 11th hour to change the school calendar last year. Are we considering reducing the school year to begin later going forward?

The calendar has only been adjusted like that one time in the past decade and that was during the 2013-14 school year. Last year, the district used eight of its 10 inclement weather student days. The School Board has already approved a calendar for the 2016-17 school year which is available online at https://old.wcs.edu/wp-content/pdf/Calendar/calendar2016-2017.pdf.