We, the undersigned, request that the San Mateo-Foster City School District School Board immediately suspend the plan to implement the Standards-Based Grading (SBG) System in our middle school grades. Our reasons for this request are as follows: • We, as parents, support this District through our taxes, our passage of bond measures and parcel taxes, election of officials, vocal communication with the governor and state legislators, and on-site PTA and other fundraising opportunities. We are active and engaged in this School District. Our voice is important and we disagree with this SBG implementation plan. • This precipitous implementation plan did not consider the impact on teachers, the effect on students or the views of parents. There was no public input. We have not seen a documented benefit to our district from a standards based grading system. • There is no definitive or objective scoring criteria established across our schools. The plan is being implemented while still in the discussion phase, which is unacceptable. Although public and private high schools have since been notified by letter, there has been no public discussion with them (as of the time of the parent presentation) regarding the impact of changing the middle school student grading system. We, the undersigned, ask the Board to suspend this Standards Based Grading System implementation plan until the District can arrange for meaningful input from a committee consisting of middle school teachers, parents, high school district representatives, community representatives and students; design a consistent and rational grading system for all schools; pilot this program in the district with a statistical sample group; and formulate a rational timeline to implement a mutually agreeable method throughout the Disitrict.

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