Special meeting to discuss WHS graduation requirements

The Windsor Unified School District (WUSD) is holding a special meeting Tuesday night, Jan. 26, to discuss graduation requirements for this year’s seniors.
According to the agenda item, on Jan. 14, WUSD high school administrators, counselors and district office administrators met regarding the high school graduation requirements for the WHS Class of 2021. The goal of the meeting was to explore ways in which the graduation requirements could be made more commensurate with their high school experience, which has included multiple school closure days and accompanying trauma from fires, power shutoffs, flood days, Air Quality Indicator days and the COVID-19 global pandemic.
An analysis at the meeting indicated there are at least 73 (19% of the class) seniors who are in danger of not graduating under the current requirements, and of the 73, the courses in which they are most credit deficient are: electives (at least 100 credits); Integrated Math 2 (at least 95 credits); English (at least 118 credits); and History (at least 91 credits).
Up for discussion at the meeting on Jan. 26 are the following proposals:

• ​​Electives: Reduce the number of electives credits required by 20, from 75 to 55. This also means that the total number of credits required for this group of students will be 200 instead of the current 220.
• Math: Adjust the current requirement for Integrated Math 2 to Integrated Math 1 plus one other course, matching the basic state requirement. (Students will still be required to complete at least two different math courses, but the highest would now be Integrated Math 1). An additional section of Consumer Math will be opened in Odyssey, the district’s credit recovery program, for students to complete as their second math course.
• English and History: It is recommended that additional sections of Odyssey be opened for seniors in need.

All on-track seniors will continue with their current graduation credit requirements and courses, according to the agenda, but Odyssey sections require synchronous time and support to ensure students are getting the help they need to earn credits.        
​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Per state law, high school students must be enrolled in at least 240 minutes (five courses) of combined synchronous and asynchronous instruction per day. Therefore, Windsor High School seniors who are on track to graduate will need to stay enrolled in their current courses required for graduation credit in order to meet the daily attendance/engagement requirements.
Counselors will be contacting WHS seniors/parents if their student is identified as meeting the criteria for the adjusted requirements.
The meeting will be begin at 5:30 p.m. and will be held via Zoom and streamed live to YouTube  at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTC8qiAOAh8Qd77KSW7c8wA  
Public comment should be sent to [email protected] by 4 p.m. on Tuesday.