The Webb City R-7 School Board meets Tuesday night.
’22-’23 school calendar is 171 days instead of 175 days
The Webb City R-7 School District calendar will be significantly different next year – with four fewer days for students, going from 175 instructional days to 171.
Reducing the number of days is allowed because the number of teaching hours will still exceed the minimum number required by the state.
Brenten Byrd, associate superintendent for instructional services, explained to School Board members Tuesday that the gain in instructional hours will be achieved by not letting juniors and seniors leave at 2:10 p.m. They will have to stay until 2:50 p.m. – the same as the other classes.
The district can only count its hours of instruction from 7:45 a.m. until the earliest time that school is dismissed, which is currently 2:10 p.m.
Byrd said that by adding the extra 40 minutes per day will bring the total number of hours up to 1,064.
In 2019, the state removed the 174-day requirement – instead requiring a minimum of 1,044 hours.
While the juniors and seniors may not like getting to leave early, they could still leave early because they have the flexibility to schedule a virtual class during their last block.
Teachers will still be contracted for 175 days. Those four days they won’t be teaching will be additional professional development days.
Byrd said the goal is to have a professional development day each month.
On typical professional development days, principals and faculty go over test data and plan curriculum.
Perhaps more importantly, Byrd said he feels professional development days are team building and collaboration opportunities, and they create a more positive culture as relationships are built.
On the current calendar, there are three “inservice” or professional development days, along with three early dismissals for teacher collaboration.
There will be no early dismissal days on the 2022-2023 calendar. Instead, they will be “no school-inservice” days
Superintendent Tony Rossetti said that switching the early dismissal days to full no-school days gives parents the opportunity to look at the 2022-2023 calendar and plan family activities on up to seven “no school-inservice” days:
You can view and download the calendars by clicking on these links:
Also, it was announced that commencement will be held on Friday, May 13, 2022. And summer school will be from Thursday, June 3 through Wednesday, June 29.
In other action, the board:
• Was informed that the COVID-19 infections among students and staff have fallen dramatically. Kevin Cooper, assistant superintendent for business operations, noting that after 1,000 students were absent because of the coronavirus and other viruses in January, there were only 20 known cases at last count. “Right now, we’re in good shape,” he said.
• Accepted Jan Shelley’s retirement letter. She is principal at Mark Twain Elementary and has been with the district for 22 years.
• Accepted the resignation of Miranda Hendrick as the Title I instructional coach at Bess Truman Primary Center. It was mentioned that she has accepted an assistant principal position at an area school.
• Approved a list of new staff positions to post. They are primarily needed to handle growing class sizes.
• Approved a request by Scott Roderique, junior high athletic director, to add junior high dance team as an activity next year.
• Approved the purchase of 400 iPads from Apple as replacements for students in kindergarten and first grade at a cost of $117,000. A grant will cover the entire cost.
• Approved the purchase of 120 MacBook Air computers to begin a three-year cycle of updating computers used by staff. This purchase, at a cost of $105,000, is for high school teachers, instructional coaches and administrators.
• Scheduled a work session an hour before the next regular meeting on March 8 to tour the completed construction projects at the high school.
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