Make-up days scheduled for midwinter break and March 23 LID

New calendar aligns with optimal student learning, community input

Issaquah schools will make up most of their seven missed school days during February's midwinter break and the March 23 Learning Improvement Day (LID), which was planned as a professional development day without students in schools.

The make-up days on the modified calendar are now scheduled for:

• Tuesday through Friday, Feb. 20 through 23 (midwinter break)
• Friday, March 23 (LID)
• Monday and Tuesday, June 25 and 26 (summer break)

However, if the District applies for and receives a state emergency waiver, the last day of school will be June 25. Any more missed days will be made up by filling in the last week of June then spring break (April 9 through 13).

The District renegotiated the calendar with the teachers union using a significant amount of community feedback with the goal of preserving optimal learning time for students. The original teachers' contract stipulated that any make-up day would automatically be placed at the end of the school year; that meant schools would have been in session through July 3 this year.

With the agreement to place the majority of the make-up days in February and March, students will now recapture important instruction before the WASL (Washington Assessment of Student Learning)-which measures a year's worth of learning for each student-and before the imminent approach of summer break becomes a distraction.

"There's no perfect solution when we're faced with seven missed school days, but our first priority is recapturing the time where we most need it for student learning," Superintendent Janet Barry said.

More information about the community survey results, state waivers, families with vacation plans, graduation dates, and more is available online.