Beginning with the 2019-2020 school year, all classes at the Thayer R-II School District will dismiss at 3:20 P.M. every Wednesday. This is due to the Districts need to comply with changes set forth at the state level with calendar compliance, Section 163.021.1, RSMo and Section 171.033.4, RSMo, inclement weather days.
This school year the state made it mandatory for at least 36 weather make-up hours to be built into the planned district school calendar. Missouri school districts could decide how they wanted to implement the additional hours into their calendar. Thayer School decided on adding an additional twenty minutes, one day a week, rather than adding a few minutes daily.
Thayer School District has a calendar committee, consisting of staff from across the district that considered all types of scenarios for adding the 36 hours into the calendar, but ultimately it came down to doing what is best for kids. Creating a twenty minute block of time that is long enough to benefit the learning process or to use that twenty minutes, so the learning process is not disrupted during the regular school day. Wednesday’s were chosen because it is the only day of the week that after-school activities do not take place.
By adding 36 weather make-up hours into the school calendar, the school will not have to make up the first six days missed for inclement weather.