[CCHS] Two important things

[Art Dulong]

Good morning,
	I am sending this message to clarify two important issues that have
generated questions over the past few days.

1) Final exams and the end of the year.

	We end the year late. Summer camps, and a myriad of other things,
conflict with the end of our year thus generating a flurry of requests for
students to take finals early. School policy does not allow the final
exams to be given prior to the beginning of the final exam period, which
is Monday June 20. If your child will have trouble being here for the exam
week or part of the exam week you should send a note to that effect
stating the reason. If a student will be here for part of the exam period
then I will give the teachers permission to seek a mutually agreeable time
within the exam period (6/20-6/23) to administer the exam. If possible
they will do that. If not possible then the final exam must be taken at a
later date during the summer or during the first week of school in
September. Of course the bad part of that is that the final is
disconnected by some weeks from the course. The good part of that is that
the student can study as much as they want to for the exam because it is
taken at a time of their choosing. 

	If a student will be absent for the whole exam period a note should be
written to that effect. I inform the teachers. Then all required finals
are taken during the summer or the first week of school in September. 

	None of this is new policy except the part of allowing exams during the
summer. The former policy only allowed the later exams to be taken after
school started in September.

2) Graduation date in 2006

	Some have questioned he published graduation date for June 2006 because
it is the second Saturday of June and not the first. June 10, 2006 is the
correct graduation date for the Class of '06. They are not being punished
with an extra week of school. The date is determined in accordance with
Massachusetts General Law Chapter 71, Section 4. That law states "...the
date of graduation from such high school may precede the regular closing
date by not more than 12 school days." Next year there are 14 school days
after June 3rd. Therefore, if we are going to maintain a traditional
Saturday graduation, we must graduate June 10. Some of you may be familiar
with schools that seem to have fluctuating graduating days including
various mid-week dates. That is because some schools simply use the "12
day" standard and graduate on whatever day that falls. We could have done
that, but it seems that Saturday is the preferred and traditional day for
graduation from CCHS. The last day of school attendance for the seniors
will be Monday June 6.

	I hope these clarifications are helpful, even if not fully pleasing.

Arthur Dulong