Year after year the calendar portraying the school year ahead looks about the same, but that’s all ending as the year of 2020-2021 approaches.

A new Missouri law has passed that will shift the start of next school year for the state’s public school districts. The law entails that the start of school will be pushed up two additional weeks, giving students and staff much longer of a summer. 

According to Mrs. Rosner, a biology teacher and a member of the Wentzville School District calendar committee, the first day of school can be no more than 16 days before Labor Day, meaning that the earliest school can start is August 24. 

Next year’s calendar has recently been approved by the school board and can be viewed next to this story. 

In an attempt to increase the flow of tourism, Missouri found the fact of extending summer as a benefit for more quality time for families and an opportunity to visit some of the many attractions throughout the state. 

While this decision to open the door for the longest summer ever, it will also greatly affect the school year. One of the biggest changes is the fact that finals, usually scheduled before the dismissal of winter break, are now moved forward to after the winter break, in January. 

Although students aren’t used to the huge change, Rosner is hopeful for the outcome. 

“To me, it’s kind of normal, with the stress of the holidays and vacations and such. I think it’s just easier to have finals in January,” Rosner expressed.

As for sophomore Sarah Dickson, she has a different perspective. 

“I see positives and negatives,” Dickson said, but overall, “I normally study really hard to get ready for the midterms and decompress and mentally reset, but with them pushed back I feel that I might forget everything, and then not have time to decompress,” Dickson said.

And although late starts are not displayed on the calendar as of yet, they are later added into the mix of the calendar days by another committee of the district. 

The one thing that remains the same next school year, is the number of days we are required to attend school, 175 days. Since the start of the school year is later, the end of the school is inevitably going to be later as well. 

“It’s like we are robbing one end of the calendar and shifting to the other end,” Rosner said. 

Next year is set to close June 2, which doesn’t account for snow days. In comparison, this year’s school calendar is scheduled to end May 22 and makeup days could go as far as May 31. 

As for breaks, spring break, in particular, is undergoing a new benefit as well. All schools in St. Charles County will have the same spring break, which is beneficial to students that have friends in other districts. 

Coming soon is the 2021-2022 calendar, and you can easily access those by going to Liberty homepage or clicking on this link.