Students might not have to make up for missing days

By Oliver Lazenby

Blaine High School students may not have to make up all four school days they missed after a September 28 electrical explosion in a mechanical room.

The district is asking the state office for superintendent of public instruction (OSPI) for a waiver for two of the days high school students missed in September and October. The outage canceled classes for all district schools on September 29, and for just high school students the following three school days.

The district has already scheduled two makeup days. An extra day has been tacked on to the end of the year for all students, making June 16 the scheduled last day of school. High school students will make up a day on November 14, which was previously a professional development day for teachers.

That day is still a teacher workday for kindergarten through 8th grade classes.

The change doesn’t leave any wiggle room in the schedule for high school graduation, which is currently set for June 9. Seniors can’t graduate more than five school days before the official last day of school, which is now pushed back to Friday, June 16.

If schools miss another day, or if OSPI doesn’t waive the two days, then the planned graduation date would be more than five school days before the last day for the rest of the students and will have to be rescheduled.

“The date for high school graduation is uncertain right now. We will need to get through winter first,” said district assistant to the superintendent Tina Padilla.

The district had no school closures last school year, however, and the lone closure the previous year was for a teacher walk out.

The district hopes to hear back from OSPI about the waiver application in the next few weeks, Padilla said.