On Tuesday, Renaissance Academy Charter High School principal Paul McGlothlin wrote a letter to Renaissance students and families informing them that the first day of regular classes at the 881 Alma Real building would be delayed until Monday, September 13. School had been scheduled to start yesterday. ‘I used to joke that the paint would still be wet on opening day, and as it turns out it will be,’ McGlothlin wrote in his letter. ‘We have made this decision to avoid exposing our community to very unpleasant fumes and to allow the Alma Real facility to thoroughly air out.’ The letter, posted on the school’s Web site (www.rahigh.org), also updated 10th, 11th and 12th grade students who will be taking classes at SMC that those courses will begin as planned on Friday, September 10. Yesterday morning, RA teachers Susan Caggiano (English) and John Kannofsky (visual arts and technology) stood in front of the Alma Real building to meet the handful of students who had not been informed about the opening day delay. Caggiano handed out a printed version of the letter on the Web site. Parent volunteer Joe Sheppard, whose two teens will be attending Renaissance, stood at the park entrance to meet students headed to school. ‘We tried to call everyone and we sent a mass e-mail [about the delay],’ said Kannofsky, who greeted 10th grader Thomas Kaesln walking towards the school with his aunt at 8:45 a.m. A Topanga resident, Kaesln said, ‘According to the principal, the first day was today,’ and he hadn’t checked the Web site or gotten a call telling him otherwise. Palisadian Jacqueline Steinberg, an 11th grader transferring from the Archer School, also showed up with her mother, Joy, on Wednesday, thinking it was the first day of school. Instead, she spent the morning touring the Alma Real school facilities with architecture and environmental science teacher Stephanie Besch. Though McGlothlin announced on the Web site that ‘construction has been completed,’ the school still looked like a construction site as workers in the downstairs classroom area secured bathroom and light fixtures. One of the floors had not been laid and paint cans, tools and ladders cluttered the floor. The facilities were not yet furnished. Upstairs, RA teachers looked for a room to hold a meeting in the also unfurnished administration offices/conference rooms’some carpeted and some with hardwood floors. The area smelled strongly of paint as contractors and workers continued to work despite all the people passing through. McGlothlin assured students and families that ‘this delay will not affect the overall instructional program. We are simply treating Wednesday and Thursday as staff development, or student free days.’ Students who showed up yesterday were instructed to check the Web site to find out about transportation plans for Friday, when they will travel by school bus from the Alma Real campus to SMC’s Stewart St. campus for 9 a.m. classes. They will return to RA by bus at 2 p.m. that afternoon.
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