Staff and administrators in the Warren County R-III School District are eagerly preparing for the students’ return to the classroom for the 2016-17 school year.Classes begin on Thursday, Aug. 11, with the same 7:45 a.m. start time as in the past.“We’ve very excited,” said Superintendent Jim Chandler. “The summer has flown by. We’ve seen a lot of good things going on with maintenance projects. We’re excited to get the new staff in and start a new school year.”Chandler says there won’t be significant changes this year and, as of now, there hasn’t been an increase in enrollment.“Our goals haven’t changed,” said Chandler. “We’re going to continue to work on achievement and attendance. We’ll revise our achievement goals based on our data, but we may not get those numbers back from the state until October.”The district will maintain its focus on achieving the 90/90 attendance initiative and continuing to improve its state assessment test scores.“The only changes in curriculum we might see would be related to keeping up with the Missouri standards,” said Chandler. “We’ve been working hard on balancing our curriculum and trying to be consistent.”The district hired Sandy Borgman as its new special education director and will also have three new building administrators. Stacie Goldsmith is now the principal at Daniel Boone Elementary, with Jodie Brown as her new assistant. At Black Hawk Middle School, Brad Ross has been hired as assistant principal.All teachers will return on Aug. 8, with an open house taking place on Aug. 9.A sports spectacular will be held on Aug. 10, with every fall athletic participating. At 5 p.m., the softball and boys soccer teams will play, with the girls golf team recognized at that time. Volleyball and cross country will be in action at 6 p.m., with the football team closing out the evening at 7 p.m. There will also be performances by the cheerleaders throughout the event.Warren County R-III School District