Snow days considered by R-5 School Board
Nevada Daily Mail
The Nevada R-5 School Board voted unanimously Wednesday night to start the 2014-'15 school year on Aug. 20, and later during the meeting began a discussion of how to handle snow days.
"This year we lost two days after Christmas break," Nevada R-5 Superintendent Dr. David Stephens, said, adding that students have missed another four days since then.
To make up those days the district is using two professional development days for classes and then extending the school year until May 30. The district already made up one day in January, on Martin Luther King Day and will use President's Day, Feb. 17, to make up a second. Then May 27-30 will be used for the remainder.
In response to a question from several board members, Stephens said that he would be opposed to starting school at a later hour because of the impact it would have on working parents, who would have to find someone to care for their children for a couple of hours.
He also told the board he was against using more professional development days to make up missed days.
"We already cut the number of instructional days to 170 to allow for more professional days," he said, adding that to use more professional development days for make up days defeats the purpose of reducing the number of instructional days.
Professional development days were added to allow more time for teachers to learn new techniques and analyze data to see what methods are the most effective.
And adding make up days at the end of May runs into family vacation plans and fewer students in class.
Another option would be to hold half day of school on a Saturday.
"One half day on Saturday would have to be at least three hours," Stephens said.
"But the average daily attendance will take a hit," he said.
"I would be open to using a couple of spring break days as make up days," Stephens said.
R-5 board president Mike McCaffree said he would also be interested in using a couple of spring break days as make-up days.
The board will consider this further during the March board meeting.