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R-5 board discusses snow days
Barring additional snow days June 1 will be the final day of classes in the Nevada R-5 district unless the board decides during its March meeting to hold classes on Good Friday or on a Saturday.
Currently the district has missed nine days due to the weather and the school calendar has six snow days included: Feb. 21, Presidents Day, as the first make-up day and May 23-27 for the other five days. To make up the nine days will mean adding three days at the end of the school year or holding a partial day of classes on Good Friday and a couple of Saturdays, Dr. David Stephens, R-5 superintendent, told the board Wednesday.
Legislation approved last year in Missouri helps the situation by limiting the number of snow days that must be made up. Schools have to make up the first seven days missed and then get to skip the eighth day, which for Nevada was Wednesday, and then make up the ninth day, which was Thursday. The total of snow make-up days is capped at 10.
"Is spring break so sacred it can't be considered?" Chris Ellis, school board president, asked.
"Absolutely it's possible," Stephens said, adding that there is nothing prohibiting the district from doing it.
He said that in one district he had been in they tried using spring break for make-up days once.
"You get a lot of complaints from families who had plans for spring break," Stephens said.
"As I have," Ellis replied, adding that if the district decided to use spring break for make-up days he would just have to deal with it.
"I'm all for having that discussion," Stephens said.
"Next year in the calendar we need to build some snow days into spring break. That way parents will know upfront those days can't be counted on, he said.
Ellis said that only a small fraction of families have plans to go out of town.
"Most people are here anyway," he said.
While using spring break on short notice would create some problems, extending the school year beyond Memorial Day creates others.
Steve Cubbage said that he thought there would be a problem getting students back after Memorial Day.
"We could do Saturday," Tyson Beshore, assistant superintendent, said.
"I would opt for Saturday rather than going after Memorial Day," Cubbage said.
Stephens said that they would only have to go for three hours on a Saturday.
"Hopefully by the March board meeting we'll know more and be able to put the plans together," Stephens said.
In other business the board voted to amend two district policies. One change will allow a newly hired teacher to be credited with all of their years of experience and the second change will eliminate the number of sick days that employees can accumulate.