O’Dea High School will distribute to the student a list of his courses for the upcoming school year and a Course Change Request Form before the conclusion of the second semester. If the student wants to request a course change, he must submit the Course Change Request Form to the Assistant Principal for Student Services before the conclusion of the second semester final examinations. The student and his parent/guardian must complete and sign the Course Change Request Form. The request will be thoroughly reviewed and the outcome will be emailed to both the student and the parents.

We may not be able to accommodate all schedule change requests, even if the Course Change Request form is completed and returned on time. Class size or section conflicts may prevent the student from receiving his first choice of elective and/or honors level courses. Furthermore, if at the time of re-registration, a student receives approval for a particular course but subsequently drops in performance or fails to fulfill course prerequisites, the student will be placed in an alternative elective course based upon availability.

Any changes to a student’s courses after the publication of the final student course list will not be made except for compelling circumstances. An example of a compelling circumstance would be a medical issue that would necessitate a change to a student’s schedule in the interest of his personal health and well-being. In this example, documentation from the student’s physician would be required prior to adjusting a student’s schedule. A change of mind, lack of motivation, failure to obtain outside tutorial support, unsatisfactory academic performance, request for a different faculty member, and requests for a different class period are not compelling circumstances. The students will receive their complete schedules with teacher and room assignments during Orientation at the end of August.

Students will be able to Drop/Add courses if there are compelling reasons through the first two weeks of school in the fall. After that time, there will be no schedule changes permitted. Schedule changes are not permitted at the end the first semester. A student’s transcript is an accurate reflection of his academic record while attending O’Dea. An approved schedule change after the start of the school year will conform to this policy. The student’s transcript will reflect the withdrawal and indicate a “W” for the original course grade. In addition, the student will be required to satisfactorily complete all coursework assigned prior to the schedule change to receive full semester credit.

O’Dea High School uses a weighted grading system.  College preparatory classes are graded on a standard 4.0 grading scale. Advanced Placement and Honors courses are graded with an extra point value using a 5.0 grading scale.

4.0 System for College Prep Courses

5.0 System for Honors & AP Courses

O’Dea High School eSchool Program

In the event of an O’Dea High School closure,  the O’Dea eSchool program, featuring the Surface Tablet 1:1 program, will provide an opportunity to continue course instruction and student learning.

The eSchool course schedule will follow the Maroon Day and Gold Day class rotation, as published on the school calendar. The learning expectation during eSchool is that all students and faculty are online and engaged with cameras using the Microsoft Teams program. During each class, there will be a minimum of 15 minutes per period that includes a real-time, active learning portion of the lesson to provide an opportunity for students to use Microsoft Teams to check-in and engage with their teacher (prayer, attendance, directions, learning activity, discussion, etc.). Students are required during eSchool to be in attendance for each class period using the meeting function in Microsoft Teams, and teachers will record attendance for each student.

If you have any questions regarding the O’Dea eSchool Program, please contact Lucas Dobbs, Assistant Principal of Academics. During a school closure, information about school co-curricular activities, scheduled events, or athletics, will be communicated directly by the activity moderator, event coordinator, or athletic coach.

O’Dea High School recognizes the academic accomplishments of students after each semester. The student may earn a certificate for First Honors if their unweighted GPA places him above a 3.85 for that semester. Students have an opportunity to earn Second Honors if their GPA is between 3.6 and 3.84 at the conclusion of each semester. O’Dea celebrates the comprehensive academic achievements of graduating seniors using the same criteria, however the student’s cumulative GPA earned over eight semesters is the basis for award.

A semester examination is a comprehensive examination that O’Dea administers at the end of each semester before awarding of a credit for a course. O’Dea publishes the dates for the semester examinations for each semester at the beginning of each school year. Students must take the semester exams during these set examination days. A student may not take the semester examinations at any other time unless there are extraordinary circumstances that compel a change. Examples of extraordinary circumstances are severe student illness or hospitalization. Vacation plans are not compelling reasons to change the examination schedule for a student. If there are extraordinary circumstances, the student must get approval for a semester exam schedule change from the Assistant Principal for Student Services. Upon approval, it is the student’s responsibility to contact each of his teachers to arrange an alternative semester exam schedule.

The O’Dea High School transcript is the most accurate record of the courses, grades and credits that a student has earned at O’Dea High School. While O’Dea recognizes that some students may want to take courses from other institutions to enrich their curriculum, those course grades and credits will not be included on the O’Dea High School transcript. The only exception to this policy is if a student is required to take a course outside of O’Dea in order to make up a course that he failed at O’Dea.

Parents and students grant permission to send transcripts when they sign the re-registration agreement each spring. This release allows O’Dea to send the student’s transcript to authorized persons upon request. A new release form must be signed each year for every student.

Standardized Test Scores belong to the student and therefore are never part of a student’s O’Dea transcript. Seniors must have their test scores sent by the testing company to the colleges to which they are applying.

A school counselor will meet with each student individually to complete the initial re-registration process. At that time, the student’s transcript is reviewed to assess progress toward completion of the O’Dea graduation requirements. The student transcript will be utilized to construct a proposed list of courses for each student. The proposed list of courses will subsequently be used to build an individual schedule for each student. Re-registration information and course request forms will be posted on the website in February.

Honors, AP and other Selective Courses 

O’Dea offers selective courses, which include Honors courses, AP courses and other courses with limited enrollments. These courses may require prior school approval for a student to enroll. An evaluation of individual student grades, standardized test scores, class participation, and behavior is completed to identify qualified students. A description of each course is available in the Course Catalog. Scheduling limitation may prevent otherwise qualified students from being registered in selective courses.

Participation in a co-curricular activity provides wholesome, rewarding, and stimulating opportunities for the young men attending O’Dea. Co-curricular opportunities offer students the occasion to develop initiative, leadership, and responsibility. From these experiences, a student can build character and the skills needed to lead successful and productive lives consistent with the Essential Elements of an Edmund Rice Christian Brother Education and the Mission of O’Dea.

Participation in co-curricular activities is voluntary and considered to be a privilege. Co-curricular eligibility shall align with, but is not limited to, all Washington Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA) rules and regulations. Nonparticipation due to ineligibility means that an O’Dea student may not participate in an O’Dea athletic contest and co-curricular activities. In addition, an ineligible student may not hold a leadership position in an athletic team, campus ministry, the House, or a student organization.

A list of students ineligible for participation in co-curricular activities will be published and distributed to the appropriate faculty and staff members at the conclusion of each academic review period. An interim grade report will be published at the midpoint of each academic review period. It is the responsibility of the Assistant Principal for Student Services to monitor the publication and distribution of these reports.

The Principal may make exceptions to the eligibility policy if circumstance warrant. No other faculty or staff member may make an exception to the policy.

Loss of Co-Curricular Eligibility

A student will become ineligible for participation in co-curricular activities on the second Monday following the completion of an academic review period.

1. A student who earned three or more mid-semester grades of “D” is not eligible for participation in co-curricular activities.
2. A student who earned two mid-semester grades of “D” and one quarter grade of “F” is not eligible for participation in co-curricular activities.
3. A student who earned two mid-semester grades of “F” is not eligible for participation in co-curricular activities.

Re-establishing Co-Curricular Eligibility

A student may regain eligibility for participation in co-curricular activities at the conclusion and at the midpoint of each academic review period if one or more of the following conditions are satisfied.

1. Eligibility for the first review period may be regained by successfully completing an approved course of study. Approval for such a course must be obtained from the Assistant Principal for Student Services.
2. If a student’s interim grades are satisfactory, he may regain eligibility for co-curricular activities on the Monday of the sixth week of the academic review period.
3. According to WIAA regulations, if a student’s first review period interim grades are satisfactory, he may regain eligibility several weeks into following semester.

Students are expected to abide by the generally accepted rules of being a good online citizen.

1. Be respectful. Do not use inappropriate language or post inappropriate graphics, images, pictures, or videos, or generate such content through AI tools, which disparages the reputation of O’Dea High School, its faculty, staff, or any employee.
2. Be safe. Do not divulge any personal information, passwords, addresses etc. with someone you don’t know unless it has been reviewed and approved by O’Dea High School.
3. Be vigilant. If you see something online that may be harmful to someone else, report it to the site’s authorities or an adult your trust.
4. Be responsible. Don’t post anything online, or generate content with AI that you don’t want to last forever. Once something is online, it is likely that it will be there permanently.
5. Be smart. Don’t believe everything you read or see online. Not everything online is true. Do your research, search for facts, be mindful that there is more and more content generated by AI that will challenge our normal signs of veracity, and not everything online is true.

Any student who fails a subject at the semester is required to make up the credit in an approved program. The Principal may make exceptions to the above regulations if he believes circumstances warrant.  No other person may make an exception to the requirements.

Ordinarily, any student receiving more than two grades of “F” in a semester or over 2 semesters in one year will be asked to withdraw from O’Dea.  Failure to make up a credit may prevent the student from continuing at O’Dea the following school year.

Any student required to make up a credit course must get approval from the Assistant Principal for Student Services prior to taking the course if the credit is to be recognized by O’Dea.  After successfully completing the course, the student’s transcript will reflect make-up credits and the student will receive a grade of “P”.  The original failing grade will remain on the transcript.

Credit Retrieval 

A student must earn a minimum of 14 credits from O’Dea High School during each academic year. If a student fails to earn a minimum of 14 credits in an academic year, he will be required to attend Summer Session to make up the credit. If a student is not able to attend Summer Session at O’Dea, they must make up the credit at an academic institution approved by the administration.

All students are required to start each school year with all of the credits needed to stay on track for graduation.

O’Dea may grant an extension in the case of an extraordinary circumstance (i.e. physician documented student illness). This would allow a student to remain enrolled in O’Dea while earning credit from an outside institution. The Assistant Principal for Student Services must receive a written request for an extension along with all appropriate documentation prior to the second Friday in August. Failure to submit a written request by the deadline will result in O’Dea withdrawing the student. In addition, if the accompanying documentation is incomplete, determined to be insufficient, and therefore denied, O’Dea will immediately withdraw the student.

If O’Dea grants an extension, the Assistant Principal for Student Services must receive documentation from the educational institution of credit earned by the last Friday in September. During this extension period, the student will be ineligible for participation in all co-curricular activities. These activities include but are not limited to athletic teams, school clubs, and campus ministry events. In addition, the student will not be allowed to attend any co-curricular activities including but not limited to field trips, dances, and athletic events. O’Dea will not grant additional extensions.

A student must establish and maintain a pattern of academic success while attending O’Dea High School.  A student failing to do so at the conclusion of each semester will be placed on Academic Probation.  It is expected that the student will re-establish a pattern of academic success during the probationary period.

Several indicators determine Academic Probation

• Earning a failing grade in a single course.
• Earning 2 or more Ds
• Earning grades that result in loss of eligibility for participation in co-curricular activities.
• Administrative determination of failure to establish and maintain a pattern of academic success.

A student will be placed on Academic Probation for a minimum of one full semester.  Removal from probationary status will be at the discretion of the principal.  The status will be reviewed periodically in consultation with the Administrative Team.

The Administrative Team may withdraw a student who has been on Academic Probation for two consecutive semesters.

O’Dea High School believes that the cooperation of school and home is a vital ingredient in the growth and education of the student and recognizes the responsibility to keep parents informed of student welfare and progress in school.

PowerSchool is designed to provide academic information that is helpful to the student, teacher, counselor and parent.

O’Dea High School is committed to appropriately protecting privacy rights pertaining to student records. Parents will be able to access student progress electronically through the use of a password created by the parents.

Some PowerSchool services will ordinarily not be available to parents or students for several days at the end of a grading period while information is being downloaded by the faculty.

Student responsibilities:

• Use PowerSchool to monitor class progress.
• Communicate with teachers regarding your progress.
• Adhere to the guidelines of Internet Policy use.

Parent responsibilities:

• Use PowerSchool with your student to monitor class progress.
• The faculty and administration are committed to working with parents in the best interest of their sons, our students.  Honest and open communication is the key to successful students.  If a parent has a particular academic concern they should directly communicate with the faculty member involved.  The faculty member contacted will work to resolve the issue via email or telephone or that faculty member will arrange a conference time with the parent to discuss the issue.
• If the issue cannot be resolved at the initial level the parent should contact the Assistant Principal for Academics who will then investigate the issue to resolve it appropriately or to refer the issue to the appropriate administrator. Every teacher has an O’Dea email address.  It is reasonable to expect a response to an email within two business days.

Connecting Our Community and Protecting Our Values

As an organization with a commitment to quality of education and the safety of our students, as well as the preservation of our outstanding reputation, the standards for appropriate online communication at O’Dea High School are necessarily high. While we respect the right of students, employees, alumni, and other members of our community to utilize the variety of social media options available (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Vimeo, and LinkedIn), we require that the following standards be met by our students and faculty at all times, as well as by alumni and all other users who participate in O’Dea-sponsored sites.

O’Dea Social Media Participation Policy

Comments to O’Dea-sponsored sites, such as its social media sites (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Vimeo, and LinkedIn), website blogs, online forms, etc., are welcome and encouraged, and we look forward to hearing from you. To promote respectful discussion within this forum, we request that you be courteous and productive and avoid comments that are profane, obscene, offensive, sexually explicit, inappropriate, inflammatory or otherwise objectionable. These forums often foster debate of an issue; users are to engage in such exchanges with mutual respect for others’ opinions.

For the privacy of users and their families, please assume that all postings to O’Dea-sponsored sites will be publicly available on the Internet and therefore publicly accessible without limitation or protection of any kind. Please consider how much personal information to share, with the understanding that this information may be linked to your name and published on the Internet.

By posting a comment or other material to O’Dea-sponsored sites, as outlined above, users give O’Dea the irrevocable right and license to exercise all copyright, publicity, and moral rights with respect to any content you provide, which includes using your submission for any purpose in any form and on any media, including but not limited to: displaying, modifying, reproducing, distributing, creating other works from, and publishing your submission. O’Dea reserves the right to review all comments before they are posted, and to edit them to preserve readability for other users.

O’Dea further reserves the right to reject or remove comments for any reason, including but not limited to our belief that the comments violate this Participation Policy, to determine in its sole discretion which submissions meet its qualifications for posting, and to remove comments for any reason.

We also reserve the right to amend this Policy in our judgment to address issues that may arise and changes in our operations or the law.

In posting material on O’Dea-sponsored sites, you agree not to:

• Post material that O’Dea determines is threatening, harassing, illegal, obscene, defamatory, slanderous, or hostile towards any individual or entity.
• Post phone numbers, email addresses or other confidential information of students, faculty, or any other person other than yourself, unless given permission. If you choose to post your own contact information for any reason, please be aware that the information will be available to the public and is, therefore, subject to misuse.
• Post material that infringes on the rights of O’Dea or any individual or entity, including privacy, intellectual property or publication rights.
• Post material that promotes or advertises a commercial product or solicits business or membership or financial or other support in any business, group or organization except those which are officially sponsored by O’Dea, except in designated areas specifically marked for this purpose or a post initiated by O’Dea High School
• Post chain letters, post the same comment multiple times, or otherwise distribute “spam” via the O’Dea-sponsored site.
• Allow any other individual or entity to use your identification for posting or viewing comments.
• Post comments under multiple names or using another person’s name.

O’Dea reserves the right to do any or all of the following:

• Ban future posts from people who repeatedly violate this Policy. We may affect such bans by refusing posts from specific email addresses or IP addresses, or through other means as necessary.
• Remove or edit comments at any time, whether or not they violate this Policy.
• Remove the tagging of an O’Dea sponsored site with material not in compliance with O’Dea High School’s philosophy and mission

User agrees to indemnify and hold harmless O’Dea High School, its affiliates and employees, and assigns against any damages, losses, liabilities, judgments, causes of action, costs or expenses (including reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs) arising out of any claim by a third party relating to any material user has posted on O’Dea-sponsored sites.

By posting a comment or material of any kind on an O’Dea-sponsored site, the user hereby agrees to the Participation Policy set forth above.

Faculty Use of Social Networking Sites

O’Dea respects the right of employees to use social media and networking sites, as well as personal websites and blogs, but it is important that employees’ personal use of these sites does not damage O’Dea’s reputation, its employees, its students or their families. Employees should exercise care in setting appropriate boundaries between their personal and public online behavior, understanding that what is private in the digital world often has the possibility of becoming public, even without their knowledge or consent. O’Dea strongly encourages all employees to carefully review the privacy settings on any social media and networking sites they use and exercise care and good judgment when posting content and information on such sites.

When using a social media site, an employee may not include current students as “friends,” “followers,” or any other similar terminology used by various sites if the student and employee began their relationship at O’Dea High School. If an employee maintains or participates in an O’Dea-sponsored online community that extends to persons who are parents, alums, or other constituents, s/he must exercise good judgment about any content that is shared on the site.

Additionally, employees should adhere to the following guidelines, which are consistent with the O’Dea’s workplace standards on harassment, student relationships, conduct, professional communication, and confidentiality:

• An employee should not make statements that would violate any of O’Dea’s policies, including its policies concerning discrimination or harassment.
• The employee must uphold O’Dea’s value of respect for the individual and avoid making defamatory statements about the school, its employees, its students, or their families.
• An employee may not disclose any confidential information about O’Dea or confidential information obtained during the course of his/her employment, about any individuals or organizations, including students and/or their families.
• If O’Dea believes that an employee’s activity on a social networking site, blog, or personal website may violate the school’s policies, the school may request that the employee cease such activity. Depending on the severity of the incident, the employee may be subject to disciplinary action.

Creating and Maintaining Official O’Dea Social Networking Sites

All “official” O’Dea social networking sites must be approved by the Director of Marketing and Communications and should adhere to the following standards:

• Logos and graphics used on the site must be consistent with the branding standards and usage guidelines of O’Dea High School.
• Sites that accept comments or postings by anyone other than the site administrator must be diligently monitored to ensure that information displayed fits within O’Dea guidelines and is appropriate to the subject matter of the page.

Student Use of Social Media

Students are encouraged to always exercise the utmost caution when participating in any form of social media or online communications, both within the O’Dea community and beyond.

Students who participate in online interactions must remember that their posts reflect on the entire O’Dea High School community and, as such, are subject to the same behavioral standards set forth in the Student Handbook.

In addition to the regulations found in the Student Handbook, students are expected to abide by the following:

• Students may not use social media sites to publish disparaging or harassing remarks or videos of O’Dea community members, athletic or academic contest rivals, etc. Students affected by such harassment are encouraged to speak up immediately and contact a member of the Administrative Team at O’Dea High School.
• Students who choose to post editorial content to websites or other forms of online media must ensure that their submission does not reflect poorly upon O’Dea High School.

Failure to abide by this Policy, as with other policies at O’Dea High School, may result in disciplinary action as determined by the Office of the Dean of Students.