New Haven School District to help seniors in danger of not graduating after strike

UNION CITY, Calif. (KGO) -- The 14-day New Haven School District teacher strike is over. Now many parents are worried about a group of seniors who needed a final grade to boost their scores enough to graduate.

Friday was the last day of school for seniors... so at this point, what can they do?

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"We are thrilled that the strike is over and especially so close to the end of the year," said the New Haven Unified School District spokesperson John Mattos.

There are 860 seniors who attend Logan High school. One of them is Colleen Weaver's daughter, who noticed her grades dropped during the strike, meaning she wouldn't graduate.

"Why the grade dropped to an F during the strike, I don't know. They said it was some sort of situation with the online grading system, which I've tried for people to explain to me the last year," said Weaver.

Seniors' last day of school was Friday, the last day of the strike.

The New Haven Unified School District said they couldn't wait and had to give those seniors a grade.

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"We looked at three data points. The most current grade, we looked at their fourth quarter deficiency grade half way through that last quarter and looked at their third quarter grade. For each course, we looked at those three data points and gave students the highest of those three grades," said Mattos.

During the strike, the New Haven Unified School District said they contacted several seniors to break the news that graduating on Saturday would not be a possibility unless they brought up their grades. At least six seniors were able to do that.

Those students were able to meet with administrators on plans to do make-up work or attend summer classes.

Now that the strike is over, teachers can work with directly with seniors.

"I don't think the best way to think about it is, man, if not for the strike, this student would have been able to graduate. I think (three weeks) absolutely could (make a difference) and that's why we were mindful about how we were going to do their grades," said Mattos.

Some parents expressed discomfort with the district's grading solution and filed complaints.

The district has 60 days to respond.

New Haven Unified has not disclosed the number of seniors who will not be graduating this Saturday.