Is it really a hardship to get there 5 minutes earlier?

It is 9 am in your seat not 9 am at the front door. Unless your child can teleport 8:55 would be the latest they could walk in and make it to their seat.

Getting upset by this email is peak North Arlington. Get your kid to school on time. Stop complaining.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They’re taking absenteeism and tardies seriously because attendance is tied to funding and schools are in an attendance crisis. She’s not doing anything wrong.

If the bell time is 9 am, they can't mark kids tardy for arriving at 8:55. They can mark them tardy for 9:01.

9:00 is when instructional time begins. The school start time is 8:50.

No, it’s really not 8:50 am. Not officially. You can ask people to come early, but the official time a kid is late— per APS’s list of school start times— is 9:01 am.

There was a similar late letter from our principal after winter break. They now lock the doors before the bell rings and bring in all the staff who manage traffic early causing lots of traffic jams on the busy road the school is on. It's annoying.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They’re taking absenteeism and tardies seriously because attendance is tied to funding and schools are in an attendance crisis. She’s not doing anything wrong.

If the bell time is 9 am, they can't mark kids tardy for arriving at 8:55. They can mark them tardy for 9:01.

9:00 is when instructional time begins. The school start time is 8:50.

Anonymous wrote:They’re taking absenteeism and tardies seriously because attendance is tied to funding and schools are in an attendance crisis. She’s not doing anything wrong.

If the bell time is 9 am, they can't mark kids tardy for arriving at 8:55. They can mark them tardy for 9:01.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No experience with the new principal, but kids have been expected to be in their seat by 8:50 for as long as I can remember.

We are at another 9 am start time APS elementary. Yes, they want kids to arrive before 9 am, but you can’t mark kids tardy for arriving by the official start time.

Sounds like too many parents were slacking off and needed a push to get there on time.

They’re taking absenteeism and tardies seriously because attendance is tied to funding and schools are in an attendance crisis. She’s not doing anything wrong.

I’m not seeing how this is mean-spirited or nasty in any way. They are cutting five minutes off the grace period for arrivals. Drop your kid off a little earlier.

Anonymous wrote:No experience with the new principal, but kids have been expected to be in their seat by 8:50 for as long as I can remember.

+1 it’s a bit of a grace period. If you tell people it’s 9 they show up by 9:15. It throws the cafeteria off, the kids are unloading during morning meeting and instructional time is lost.

I don’t know about the staff/teacher morale part but I’ll take her a thousand times over the last principal. Talk about nasty.

Anonymous wrote:No experience with the new principal, but kids have been expected to be in their seat by 8:50 for as long as I can remember.

We are at another 9 am start time APS elementary. Yes, they want kids to arrive before 9 am, but you can’t mark kids tardy for arriving by the official start time.

No experience with the new principal, but kids have been expected to be in their seat by 8:50 for as long as I can remember.

There is a huge push across APS to stop tardiness and chronic absenteeism. I fully support it. It’s very disruptive and you lose a ton of instructional time. There was nothing nasty about this note.

What is up with the new ASFS principal -- she comes late, leaves early, does not encourage parent participation in class parties or other activities, has teachers at her own school she has never met and cannot tell you their names, and sends mean-spirited emails to the community. Last week, she sent a nasty-gram to the school telling parents that students are late if they arrive after 8:50 am and directing staff to lock doors at 8:55 am, even though everyone at the school knows -- and the school's website even indicates -- that the start time for ASFS has been 9:00 a.m. for many years. Even if she were right about the start time of her own school, which she is not, the way she did it was so disenfranchising. Morale is at an all-time low, and teachers and staff are so discouraged by her lack of leadership.

Arlington Science Focus School posted in Arlington Science Focus School


ASFS Tardy Policies

Dear ASFS parents,

As you all know, school starts each day at 8:50am. Morning announcements start playing at 8:50, and teachers start instruction immediately afterward. It is important that students be on time every day, as they miss important information and the daily routines when they are late. We do understand that some students arrive tardy due to doctor’s appointments and the like; those are excused tardies. Unfortunately, we also have many students who are receiving unexcused tardies.

Until now, we have had a “grace period” for tardiness until 9:00; we have only marked students tardy after 9:00. However, there has been a great increase in the number of tardy students over the last few weeks. There are so many students arriving late that there is often a line at the door to get in.

In light of that, we will now be shutting the front doors at 8:55, not 9:00. Students arriving after 8:55 must be accompanied by their parents to the main office before they can go to class. If you pull up to drop your child off, and the doors are closed, that means you must walk your child in and sign them in.

Thank you.

Gina Miller, Principal