2017-18 Schedule Update - Two Bell Times!

UPDATED: SPS originally had next year's start time listed as 8am for the second bell. That has been changed to 7:55am (same as this year). See below for the updated 2017-18 schedule!

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You may have heard, but the Seattle City Council approved a one-time grant to the school district to make the conversion from three bell times to two. That's just part of the changes coming for next year with the longer school day and consistent early dismissal on Wednesdays.

This means that starting in 2017-18, QAE will have the following schedule:

• First bell - 7:50am
• Second bell - 7:55am
• Dismissal - 2:25pm
• Early release dismissal on Wednesdays - 1:10pm

See details from the email sent out by SPS below!

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Final School Bell Schedules:
Starting next year, there will be two tiers of bell schedules, and the school day will be 20 minutes longer. This change will result in more than two additional days of instruction for students. Changing to a two-tier bell schedule will eliminate the latest or third tier of school start and end times, which has been a hardship on many of our families. 

The City Council voted June 14 to approve one-time funds to move us to this new schedule. Thank you to Mayor Murray and numerous family advocates for bringing attention to this issue and to the City Council for finding a thoughtful funding solution. I also want to thank and recognize the many families who shared their perspectives and concerns with us. In response, we were able to make small modifications to the final two-tier bell schedules. These changes address possible loss of high school instructional time, maintain the current school start time for many elementary and K-8 schools (while also adding 20 minutes to the school day), and eliminate the third tier, ensuring that all students begin school by 9 a.m. The final schedule reflects the varied needs and perspectives of our families, students, staff and partners.

2017-18 School Calendar:
The full 2017-18 School Year Calendar is now available including school breaks, holidays and early release days.
The Seattle Education Association and the district negotiate the school calendar. To learn more about the calendar development process, please visit our School Year Schedule Update Announcement.

Early Release Days:
Currently, the district has a variety of early release days during the school year to support staff professional development. Next year, students and families will have a consistent weekly schedule. Students will be released 75 minutes early every Wednesday (except for the first day of school).

This schedule change supports teacher collaboration and instructional planning. Dedicated time for teachers to collaborate and plan together is one of the most important strategies we use to ensure high quality instruction in every classroom. Thank you for your understanding as we make this important system shift.

We recognize childcare is a challenge for many families and the need may increase because of the weekly early release day. Childcare options and resources can be found here. We will continue to update the childcare webpage throughout the summer in partnership with our many school-based providers.

In closing, I believe these system changes will benefit our students and support our mission of ensuring every student is college, career and life ready. Thank you again for your patience as district staff, the School Board, our labor partners, the City and many others worked together to find the best possible schedule solutions for our families and students.