Dear RPS parents and staff:

What a winter it has been so far! With today’s school closing, we are at 12 canceled days of school.  As communicated with you previously, we have used the six forgiven days and plans were underway to request a waiver of three additional days.

You know that safety is my first priority when making decisions about whether to have school or not.  Second only to safety, is the importance of instructional time.  This number of lost days of instruction is having a major impact on teaching and learning.  Therefore, our building principals are working with our teachers to prioritize the crucial instructional components of our K-12 curricula to make sure our students receive that instruction.

This has been an unprecedented year for weather so far.  School districts across Michigan are appealing for legislative action to forgive the canceled days up to this point and start over with a new allowance of six forgiven days. Legislative action with Governor Whitmer’s approval is the only option to forgive these days without penalty to school districts.  If you are comfortable reaching out to legislators, their contact information is listed below.  Remember, it is only early February and there is much winter to come.

At this time, I am asking parents and staff to earmark Friday May 24 (the Friday before Memorial Day) as well as Monday, June 10 and Tuesday, June 11 for instructional days.  These are tentative but may be necessary in order to provide the instructional time your students deserve.

I do understand that many of you have plans for Memorial Weekend and summer vacations, and high school students plan to begin summer jobs, however, if it is necessary to add days or extend the school year, we will be required to meet minimum student attendance requirements set forth by the State.

As always, I appreciate your patience and understanding as we meet the challenges that are out of our control.

Thank you,

Dr. Michael Shibler

Superintendent of Schools

 

Rockford Public School District State Legislators:

Senator Peter MacGregor (28th District): SenPMacGregor@Senate.Michigan.gov

Representative  Lynn Afendoulis (73rd District): LynnAfendoulis@house.mi.gov

Representative Mark Huizenga (74th District): MarkHuizenga@house.mi.gov

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