Following a lengthy disruption caused by persistent winter weather, the Wright City R-II School District has decided to forgo scheduling any makeup days. School board members voted not to add any additional hours of instruction during their monthly meeting on Feb. 18.

R-II had not canceled a single day due to weather this year before February, but the recent stretch of snow and cold temperatures kept students at home for eight snow days.

“Instructional days are very important, but given all the challenges of this year between COVID and weather, the board opted to waive those eight days,” said Berger. “The feedback we’ve gotten so far has been really positive, so hopefully that holds.”

Moving forward, R-II will implement Alternative Method of Instruction (AMI) if it has to cancel more days due to weather. The district is allotted 36 hours of AMI, which would allow students to receive assignments and complete them at home in order to be counted as attending. These days would also not be required to be made up with in-person class.

“With it being this far into the year, we’re pretty confident we won’t end up beyond the amount of AMI hours we have,” said Berger. 

Whereas in the past, snow days would be added to the end of the regular school year, new challenges exist which prevent that solution. State law now mandates that schools start the school year no earlier than 14 days prior to Labor Day, meaning end dates are also later in the year and don’t leave much room for added days.

“Given the challenges of the mandatory start date for districts now, makeup days are bad options,” said Berger. “You either have to start taking away holidays like spring break or Easter break, or put them on the end of the calendar.”

Adding them to the end of the calendar would mean no break for students planning to attend summer school. Currently, R-II’s final scheduled day is May 28 and summer school is set to begin June 1.

“The option of putting those missed days on the end of our calendar just becomes nearly impossible because you start impacting summer school,” said Berger. “If you don’t have some kind of break between the last day of school and summer school, it will negatively impact your summer school attendance. That’s exactly what we’re up against.”

R-II is able to forgo using the snow days since it meets the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s requirement for instructional hours, even without them.

“We are on track to be well above the 1,044-hour standard, so we have the option to waive snow days,” said Berger, who notes that school districts have decreasing autonomy to make such decisions.

“One thing that is frustrating about that mandatory school start date is taking that locally controlled decision away. That is now being done at the state level,” said Berger. “It doesn’t leave us a lot of flexibility when it comes to the calendar and makeup days.”