Janine DavisRecord Staff WriterCiting an urgent need to improve student learning against a backdrop of 15 snow days so far this school year, R-III leaders have approved a 2014-2015 calendar designed to give kids and teachers more instructional days than in recent history.“We’re focusing on what kind of school calendar would be best for our students and teachers to give our students the highest level of instruction,” R-III Superintendent Jim Chandler told the R-III school board during its February monthly meeting last Thursday.One key feature of the new calendar is a move to schedule 175 classroom days, up from 170 days currently in the 2013-2014 calendar. The new schedule exceeds the state’s target of 174 days on the calendar.“The main point for us is added days of instruction,” said Chandler, noting that the majority of schools in the area have between 175 and 178 days on their calendar. “For us, at 170 days, if you lose 14 days and make up 10, that’s 166 classroom days left for instruction. Under a 175-day calendar, the same weather and make-up scenario would leave us 171 days, which is still more than what we started with this year.”Chandler said administrators and teachers’ union representatives had worked corroboratively and without any friction in coming up with the new calendar.“We were all in unison about wanting a calendar to benefit students,” said Chandler.Another feature of the new calendar is changing how teacher professional development days are handled. Currently, the district has eight full days of training for teachers in the calendar, which both leaders and teachers believe is too disruptive to student learning.Under the new calendar, these days would become two-hour early release for students and occur on the first Wednesday of each month, enabling students and teachers to get in nearly a full day away from the classroom.“We all believe consistency in schedule is needed,” said Chandler.Chandler and R-III Assistant Superintendent Dr. Gregg Klinginsmith said they had audited other surrounding school districts on the early release approach and found most schools are following this route, and have seen academic test scores improve in the process.Still Digging Out FromThis Winter“We’ve had 14 snow days so far,” Chandler observed last Thursday, with the likelihood of another weather day forecast for Monday of this week with sleet and ice expected to make many roads and sidewalks unsafe for travel.In fact, Monday as Presidents’ Day, which was planned to be activated as a make-up day, was canceled due to weather.Chandler said in talking with members of the community, the last time they remember a winter like this was 1978.“It’s been a rough time,” he said.As it turned out, just as students were able to return to classrooms last week, Friday had originally been scheduled as another out-of-class day for teacher professional development. But with board approval, administrators and teachers jointly decided to make it an instructional day instead.“I appreciate the teachers and the board saying, ‘we need to have structure back in the calendar sooner rather than later,’” Chandler said.Chandler told the board he anticipated the possibility of still additional weather days, and asked the board for authority to schedule new make-up days if that were to occur before the next school board meeting. Chandler recommended make-up days for Feb. 28, currently scheduled for parent/teacher conferences, and if needed, April 17, which had been scheduled as a professional development day.The board voted unanimously in favor of giving Chandler this authority.R-III approves calendar with more instructional days