By John BrasierRecord Staff WriterThe Wright City R-II School District will give students a chance to ease into the 2015-2016 school year.Classes will begin on Aug. 13, a Thursday, giving students a short, two-day opening week.“It should make the teachers happy,” said Assistant Superintendent David Buck. “The students will have a chance to get back into the pace of things. Sometimes that’s hard for the younger students.”Five members of the district’s board of education quickly approved the calendar without opposition at their Feb. 19 meeting. Board members Corri Ruge and Heidi Neill were absent.A committee presented the calendar at the board’s January meeting.Four snow days are built into the 174-day calendar, scheduled to end on May 19. Snow days not used would be subtracted, making May 16 the earliest possible final day of classes.For the sixth straight year, R-II will dismiss classes 50 minutes earlier on Wednesdays for teacher workshops.Buck pointed to the district’s designation as the state’s most improved school district as evidence that replacing teacher workshop days with early Wednesday dismissals has been effective.Parent-teacher conferences are scheduled the week of Sept. 28 through Oct. 2. Schools will have early dismissal on Thursday, Oct. 1. There will be no school on Friday, Oct. 2.Christmas vacation will be Dec. 23 through Jan. 4 for students. Spring break is scheduled for March 25 (Easter is March 27) through April 1.Holidays include Labor Day on Sept. 7, Thanksgiving break Nov. 25-27, Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Jan. 18 and Presidents Day on Feb. 15. Memorial Day on May 30 would be a holiday if snow days extend the school year that long.Classes would be in session on MLK Day, Presidents Day and Good Friday before the year would be extended past May 19, officials said.Other days off for students include teacher professional development days on Sept. 18, Oct. 26-27 and Feb. 12.Wright City R-II