ATTENTION PARENTS

APS has proposed a change to next year's school calendar that will affect ALL APS schools, including Desert Willow Family School.

We do not have all the details just yet but here are some things that we might expect:

• DWFS will be expected to follow the standard APS bell schedule, with students in class Monday through Friday.

• Students would be released early on Wednesdays but would have a full day on Fridays.

• It isn’t clear yet what 80% or 50% schedules would look like, but they might be 80% or 50% of the time in class on each school day, rather than a full homeschool day on Mondays.

• DWFS will have to follow the start date, end date, and holidays (spring break, winter break, fall break, etc) for the APS traditional calendar.

It's really important that we weigh in as a community! Please respond to the survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/2J6JYBV (or follow the link in the email from APS or Ms. Trish Ann) to let the school board know that we value our homeschool day on Mondays and that following the standard APS schedule would not meet the unique needs of our school community. Most importantly, our school needs the autonomy to set our weekly schedule to take full advantage of our hybrid in-class/homeschool learning model.

The letter below was sent to the APS Chief of Schools requesting autonomy in setting our daily/weekly schedule. Feel free to use any talking points in the letter in your survey response!