Schools

Snow Days Running Out for Parkway, Rockwood Schools

Thursday was the third snow day both districts have taken this year.

Editor's note: Parkway School District has four snow days built into their calendar. A previous version of this story incorrectly reported the number of days.

Snow days are wearing thin for both Parkway and Rockwood school districts. Thursday was the third day both districts canceled classes for inclement weather this school year.

officials built five days into this year's calendar for weather-related cancellations, so now have only two remaining as a cushion.

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"In the past, we added days on to the end of the year if we go past the five days," said Janet Strate, Rockwood board of education director.

had just four built into the calendar, district communications coordinator Cathy Kelly said. If class is canceled more than four times, school days will have to be made up, either by holding classes on days previously planned to be holidays, such as President's Day, or by adding days to the end of the school year.

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Strate said she is unsure how Rockwood graduation might be affected if more than five weather-cancellation days are needed this year. Seniors typically finish a few days ahead of the other students, but might have to attend classes this year up until graduation if more days are canceled.

Strate said the attendance situation for each Rockwood high school is different, given the various calendars and graduation dates.  "With four high schools and four different graduation dates, it gets tricky," she said.  "We really can't move graduation dates, because we have a contract with Chaifetz Arena for specific dates and times."

Missouri state laws require 174 days of instruction without any penalties for those districts with five-day school weeks. 

The length of a school day for districts with a five-day school week must be at least three hours, but not more than seven hours long, except for vocational schools in St. Louis and St. Louis County, which may plan school days up to eight hours long.

Missouri's statutes do not define the minimum or maximum school day for half-day kindergarten programs.

Editor's Note: How are you spending the snow day? Whether you're curled up with a mug of hot chocolate by a fire or playing with the kids outside, we want to know! We'd love to share your photos. E-mail editor Rachel Heaton at rachel.heaton@patch.com with photos and captions of what you're doing and who's in the photo. 


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