The Sweet Springs School Board discussed and approved some calendar options for the rest of this school year and the next during its meeting on March 14.
According to minutes from the meeting, Superintendent Lori Price said the district has missed 12 days due to inclement weather this year, but only nine days have to be made up which two of those days were made up earlier this year. The remaining make-up days are currently scheduled for April 22-23 and May 20-24. Price added if another day is missed, it would be the last day the district would have to make up, but also means the district would have to be in session after Memorial Day. The board approved a motion to utilize April 18 as a possible make-up date. The date is currently scheduled as a full Professional Development Day; but if it is needed as a make-up date, the students will be in session for a half-day and the other half would be for professional development.
In other business, Price said starting with the 2019-2020 school year, districts must create and adopt a calendar based on a minimum of 1044 instructional hours with the maximum amount of make-up hours due to inclement weather set at 60 hours. Price added the Calendar Committee came up with options so the district would not have to make up any additional days, as well as protect all holiday breaks and the last day of school would not change next school year. One option that was proposed would have the school day starting at 7:55 a.m. and end at 3:15 p.m., and with the 20 minute extension each day, it would create 10 school days.
The board approved the calendar option to begin during the 2019-2020 School Year.