R-III School Board approves changes to 2020-21 calendar

By: Derrick Forsythe, Staff Writer
Posted 11/24/20

While much of its resources have lately been devoted to responding to the current ever-changing climate, the Warren County R-III School Board took a moment to look ahead during its monthly meeting on …

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R-III School Board approves changes to 2020-21 calendar

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While much of its resources have lately been devoted to responding to the current ever-changing climate, the Warren County R-III School Board took a moment to look ahead during its monthly meeting on Nov. 11. Members voted 7-0 to approve the calendar for the 2021-22 school year, acknowledging a few changes from the current model.

“This is our standard time we approve our calendar for next year,” said Superintendent Dr. Gregg Klinginsmith. “As people are making plans they’re able to know in advance when we’ll be off.”

The most significant shift is the movement of spring break to the fourth week of March to align with the Washington School District, which includes the Four Rivers Career Center vocational tech program that enrolls Warren County R-III students.

“A lot of districts in the area are having spring break that week, and we wanted to make sure all of our students had a full spring break,” said Klinginsmith.

The other deviation from the present calendar is the transition of parent teacher conferences into two separate nights, with the middle and high school meeting on Oct. 4 and the elementary levels on Nov. 1, 2021.

The first day of school for 2020-21 will be Aug. 24, with the last day of school scheduled for June 3. 

Other significant dates include the high school commencement ceremony, which will be held on June 11, considerably later than previous graduations in the district.

R-III students will have the week of Nov. 23-26 off for Thanksgiving break, while the Christmas holiday break will be from Dec. 20-31.

The calendar includes 160 teacher days and 147 student days.

Snow days will be made up on the following Monday, with the first five snow days made up through the district’s Alternative Method of Instruction program.

The district plans to continue the four-day week model implemented during the 2019-20 school year. 

“We feel like it’s going really well,” said Klinginsmith. “I think it’s helping us retain our staff. We definitely haven’t lost as many teachers as we did prior to having four-day weeks. It’s also helping us save financially, with big savings toward substitutes.

According to Klinginsmith, the district’s approximate savings from the four-day school week last year was around $250,000. He says exact figures are hard to determine, given the school year converting to the virtual model two months prior to completion.

“All the metrics since we implemented it seem to be doing well,” added Klinginsmith. “Discipline has been down since it started and attendance is up. When we looked at reading levels throughout the year, students were meeting the benchmarks.”

Warren County School District

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