Due to weather this school year, the Trenton R-9 School District has missed six full days of classes and three hours of another day.
Superintendent Daniel Gott reports the district has accumulated 42 total snow day hours and no school time needs to be made up.
No alternative methods of instruction (AMI) days have been used so far because Trenton has enough hours built into its calendar, preventing the need to switch to an AMI schedule.
Gott says once a school district reaches 37 hours of weather-related cancellations, that is the maximum the state requires the district to match. Beyond this threshold, the amount of time required to be made up decreases.
Make-up days will not occur on holidays, as the district’s schedule does not include this provision. However, two potential weather make-up days are scheduled for May 20 and 21.
Road conditions are a crucial factor in deciding whether to cancel school.
Additionally, warnings or advisories involving wind chills and cold temperatures are considered.
How is a late-start decision made?
Gott consults with the National Weather Service, receives updates from the Missouri Department of Transportation, and discusses road conditions with nearby area superintendents.
Due to poor conditions on gravel roads, school buses have been using hard surface routes.
Gott checks gravel road conditions daily to determine their suitability for buses. He hopes for an early resolution, as the current situation is challenging for families living on these roads.
The First Student Bus Company designs the hard surface routes, which are approved by the Board of Education and published on the district’s website.
