Students and staff in the Warren County R-III School District will experience significant shifts in their schedules entering the 2020-21 school year.
The R-III board of education approved the …
This item is available in full to subscribers.
We have recently launched a new and improved website. To continue reading, you will need to either log into your subscriber account, or purchase a new subscription.
If you are a digital subscriber with an active subscription, or you are a print subscriber who had access to our previous wesbite, then you already have an account here. Just reset your password if you have not yet logged in to your account on this new site.
If you are a current print subscriber and did not have a user account on our previous website, you can set up a free website account by clicking here.
Otherwise, click here to view your options for subscribing.
Please log in to continue |
Students and staff in the Warren County R-III School District will experience significant shifts in their schedules entering the 2020-21 school year.
The R-III board of education approved the annual calendar during its monthly meeting on Nov. 14. The biggest changes are the starting and ending dates. Board members voted 5-0, also agreeing to maintain the four-day school week, which was implemented at the beginning of the current academic year.
Students will not begin session until Aug. 25, which is about two weeks later than recent years. The conclusion of the school year will be pushed back to coincide with the later starting date, with the final day of classes set for June 4.
Graduation, which has historically been held in mid-May, is scheduled for June 12, 2021.
Superintendent Dr. Gregg Klinginsmith said the later dates are a result of a changes in legislation.
“Starting next year, school districts are not allowed to start school more than two weeks prior to Labor Day,” explained Klinginsmith. “That required us to start later and, as a result, end later.”
The basis of the change centers around generating more statewide revenue for education through tourism, as places like the Lake of the Ozarks were experiencing decreases that seemed to be linked to earlier school start dates.
The later graduation provides a safety buffer for making certain seniors get the required amount of hours in the classroom, in the case of unexpected days off.
“In our situation the seniors still have to get 1,044 hours in the classroom,” said Klinginsmith. “What we want to do is ensure those hours are met in time. Our district is going the minimum numbers of hours required, so our seniors have to go the whole time to get the credits and be considered full-time students.”
Other changes include condensing parent-teacher conferences to one day, which will be on Monday, Oct. 26. With R-III not being in session on Mondays, it would allow earlier times for parents to meet with teachers without disrupting curriculum time.
“The staff felt like they wanted to give parents (who work evenings) an opportunity ... to get here during the day, so we thought we would try it on a Monday to see how it worked out for families,” Klinginsmith said.
