Winter weather has forced school cancellations beyond the six days built into the calendars for make-up days at some school districts in the county. District administrators are scrambling to find make up-days that will not extend the school year, but are about to run out of options.
The Richland School District has missed 13 days this year, the most of any district. Their problem was compounded by being out of school when there were problems with the treated water supply recently. Bloomfield has missed 12 days of school this year due to bad weather. Bernie has missed 10.
Most districts build into their schedules six make-up days.
Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) policy sets the guidelines for how many days missed due inclement weather must be made up during the school year.
These guidelines state, "A qualifying district is required to make up the six scheduled make-up days, plus half of the additional days lost up to a total of 10 make-up days. The remainder of the days and hours lost may be forgiven."
Bloomfield School District Superintendent Toni Hill said students had missed a total of 12 days of school at Bloomfield as of Thursday. Because make-up days after the first six are made up two for one, it means districts are not forgiven for missed days until they exceed 14 total days, Hill said.
Hill noted that so far the district has managed to schedule the make-up days without extending the school year. The last day of classes is to be May 23. More missed days will mean the district will have to extend the school year past the Memorial Day holiday. The board approved a revised school calendar at their January meeting, but further revisions have had to be made due to the recent round of snow and ice. Students have already attended school on Jan. 6, Jan. 7 and Jan. 20 to make up for lost days.
The following days are scheduled as make-up days in the Bloomfield School District: Feb. 17, March 17, April 17, April 22, May 22 and May 23.
Richland School District Superintendent Frank Killian said his district will hit the maximum number of days it has to make up if they miss one more day. The school year was supposed to end on May 16, but the following week has already been added for make-up days. The school year will now end on May 23.
Killian said Richland shortened their Christmas break by two days, bringing students back on Jan. 2-3 to make up for two of the days missed. He said the district will have to schedule two more make-up days, but those should be able to be incorporated into the current calendar. He said one of those dates would likely be Presidents Day in February.
Bernie School District Superintendent Doug Ruck said the Bernie District had missed 10 days, so the district was having to find more days within the current schedule for make-up days. He said currently the district has not had to extend the school year.
Ruck said the fact that the district missed several days in early December because of ice and snow led administrators to decide to make up three days during the Christmas break. They added Dec. 20 and Jan. 2 and Jan. 3 as make-up days.
"It really is a good thing we did," said Ruck, noting the days Bernie Schools have been closed this past week due to the weather.
Students in the Dexter School District have missed a total of six days. One make-up day was built into the 2013-14 school calendar, so five make-up days had to found.
The five newly scheduled make-up days in the Dexter School District are as follows: Feb. 14, Feb. 17, March 14, March 17 and May 23.
Attempts to reach the Bell City School District were unsuccessful because the school was not in session due to the icy roads.