Rumor Mill – April 13, 2017

Published April 13, 2017

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.

I’d like to know what the bus policy is for when the sirens go off for a tornado warning, i.e., what is the protocol being followed for the safety of the kids and driver who are ALREADY on the bus? Does the bus driver stop his route and immediately return to the school or the nearest safe spot (like a church)… or continue his route?

When there is a tornado warning, the district will make the call for buses to be delayed at the school until or, if the buses are on their route, bus drivers will be told to immediately seek shelter.

I see your explanation to the question regarding grandfathering in kids who have siblings at the same school. I’m pretty sure I understand that explanation of siblings will not be sent to two different high schools when they are in HS at the same time…..but what about the same campus? In other words I will have a sixth grader, seventh grader and eighth grader at BMS. When my eighth grader goes into ninth grade, will he be allowed to go to BHS because his younger siblings will then be at BMS in seventh and eighth grade? It seems very difficult to put parents with a child down at Franklin High (if he gets rezoned there) and his siblings are all the way up at BMS and they get out of school at the same time of the day.

According to School Board Policy 1.703, the grandfathering provision of the policy is designed for schools, not campuses. The purpose is not to require a student to leave his/her school on a rezoning if he/she has a year left at elementary or middle school, or two years at high school. Because of growth and the potential for rezoning occurring, continuing some students as “grandfathered” for their entire school career and others no more than one year, is not a reasonable program to establish county-wide.

With the State no longer allowing districts to shorten the school year for unused snow days, will WCS re-evaluate the number of scheduled snow/weather days needed? Also over the past 10 years how many of these days have actually been used each year?

The number of snow days is discussed each year when the Calendar Committee begins its recommendation to the Superintendent. The 2017-18 school year calendar was approved by the School Board at its January 17 meeting and includes 10 snow days that are accumulated through extended work (stockpile) days. Although the district has not used any snow days this year, WCS has had years in the past when it used nearly all 10 such as the 2009-10 school year (8 days), the 2010-11 school year (9 days) and the 2014-15 school year (9 days).