Saturday school required for Tacoma high school seniors

Tacoma High School seniors who want to graduate this year
are going to have to give up a little bit of their
weekend.

To make up for days missed because of the teachers’ strike
at the beginning of the year and snow days, the Tacoma
School District has announced students will have to attend
at least one Saturday session.

“There’s just no way around this,” says Dan Voelpel,
district spokesman. “Seniors, in order to graduate, need
to have 175 instructional days and with the current
schedule of graduations, which we already delayed one
week, they need extra days in order to meet that minimum
standard.”

The number of Saturdays varies from school to school
depending on the district’s staggered graduation schedule.

Seniors at Mount Tahoma and Wilson will be required to
make up three “Senior Saturdays.” Foss, Lincoln, and
Stadium seniors will have to attend one.

But not all teachers and staff will be joining them.

“Most of the work done during these days will be
preparation for final exams, preparation for their student
led conferences and filling out graduation applications,
so
it’s not all going to be typical class work,” says
Voelpel. Only a select number of employees will be
needed.

But for the students, there’s no playing hooky.
Attendance is mandatory for all graduating seniors.