As the weather starts to get cooler, and snow starts getting on the radars, Superintendent Brian Bishop and the Wentzville School District have released their plans for snow days this year.
This school year’s plan for snow days will look very similar to last year’s. With this being Bishop’s second year in office, most people are used to the change in snow day plans from two years ago when former Superintendent Danielle Tormala set the plan for seven normal snow days before AMI kick in. Although with Bishop taking her spot, he has changed it to only two allotted snow days before the we have to change to AMI days.
After we use up our two normal snow days, we will face AMI days for up to the seventh snow day. Alternative Method of Instruction (AMI) days are used so students are able to be at home not in the snow, but still learning and completing school work as if they were in the classroom.
In the case that we have seven or less snow days, the last day of school will be moved up to May 22 rather than the May 29 date that is planned currently. However, the official last day of school will not be known until after the April Board of Education meeting, where the seniors last day of school will also be determined.
Sometimes, parents are upset when a snow day has been announced because there might not be a ton of snow in their area, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t more snow in another part of the district. Whenever a snow day is called, it is called for the entire district and for a good reason and is not called for one part of the district.
“There may be times when the conditions in some parts of the District may be deemed unsafe, while conditions in other parts of the District may not be as bad,” Bishop said. “When in doubt, we will error on the side of caution for the safety of our students and staff.”
With the recent change in the snow day plans, many students have very different views on it.
“I didn’t think much of it at all. I just really hope that we can get the max amount of snow days but also where we don’t have to add a bunch of days like we did last year,” Chase Eberwein (12) said. “Hopefully it won’t affect the date that I get out of school this year since it is my senior year.”
While currently the last day of school is scheduled for May 29, there is the chance that it can get pushed back in the rare case of 12 or more snow days. If there are 13 or more snow days, the last day of school will interfere with the seniors graduation date of May 31, but just like in years past, the seniors last day of school will not be the same as everyone else and will get out a certain amount of days earlier which is determined during the April Board of Education Meeting.
