Date change: Incoming 7th grade student/parent orientation program

The orientation program for incoming 7^th grade students and parents will be held on Tuesday, June 12 from 6:30 p.m. to 7:40 p.m. Please mark your calendars; this is a change from the previously announced May 31 date.

Both parents and students should plan to attend on June 12; we will have separate programs running simultaneously that evening. In years past, we have been able to conduct separate orientation programs for our incoming  7^th graders and their parents.  The parent program was held in the  evening and the student program was held during one of the last school days of the year.  Due to two specific reasons, however, this year we need to alter how we provide these important informational sessions.

First, the NY State Education Department has reinterpreted the regulations regarding half days of school.  Half days no longer count as regular school attendance days.  As a result of this new legal requirement, the junior high will not end the school year with five half days of school, which has been done for the past 30 years.  Instead, all of our days of school will be full length with all students in attendance.  We will not be able to accommodate an orientation program incoming 7th grade students when we still have 900 current 7^th and 8^th graders in school.

Second, with the middle school building project beginning, the campus will be under construction and there will be limited access to our grounds.  This means that the second annual part of our orientation, Open School Day, cannot be held this summer.  Given these two restrictions on how we can provide an orientation for our incoming students, we felt that it would be unfair to have new 7^th graders’ first day in our building to be the first day of school in September.

To address these concerns, we have decided to combine the student orientation with the parent program on June 12. Students will be able to meet with their block teachers during this time as well. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our office. We look forward to having you all visit us on June 12!

Dr. Russ Moore
Shaker Junior High School Principal

Dawn Lange
Jan Zadoorian
Shaker Junior High School Hall Principals

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