Changes have been made to the School District of Washington’s
academic calendar, as constructed by the District Calendar Committee, which go into effect for the upcoming 2019-20 school year. The first day of the school year is Thursday, August 15.
District Calendar Committee consists of 24 teachers and administrators balanced between the seven elementary schools, Early Learning Center, Four Rivers Career Center, Washington High School and Washington Middle School based on the percentage of students enrolled in each school building. The committee held three meetings with the goal of:
*Establishing an academic calendar that maximizes student learning.
*Establishing an academic calendar that is considerate of the professional learning time for staff.
*Collaboratively building a calendar (within the guidelines) that is thoughtful and productive.
The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) has instituted requirements to academic calendars. The requirement summary is as follows:
*There are no longer a minimum number of student attendance days required, as long as required number of hours are included in the academic calendar. Prior to 2019-20, academic calendars had to include 174 days minimum.
*A minimum of 1,044 hours of attendance must be included in the academic calendar.
*A total of 36 hours of inclement weather make-up must be included in the academic calendar
*The District can choose to add 60 additional hours to their academic calendar totaling 1,104 hours and not have to make up any hours missed due to inclement weather.
The School District of Washington has indeed added those 60 instructional hours to the calendar to alleviate inclement weather make-up days.
By adding the 60 instructional hours, it allows the District to:
*Set the academic calendar with no changes in beginning or end dates, holidays, or winter/spring breaks.
*The high school graduation date is set with no possibility of having to change graduation due to having too many snow days. There’s no possibility of having to reprint graduation announcements or rearrangement of travel plans for out of town guests.
*Snow days will not need to be made up due to the 60 additional hours built into the academic calendar and school bell-time changes, where applicable.
Additional hours were added as follows:
Elementary Schools
* There is no change in start or end times of the elementary schools. The start time is 7:45 a.m. The end time is 2:45 p.m.
Washington Middle School
*The start time of the middle school is 8:25 a.m. The end time is 3:30 p.m.
Washington High School
*The start time of the high school is 8:20 a.m. The end time is 3:25 p.m.
Key Dates
*The first day of the 2019-20 school year is Thursday, August 15. The last day is Thursday, May 21.
*Early Release Wednesdays have been eliminated. Wednesdays are now full days, unless otherwise noted.
*Winter break for students runs December 21 through January 5. Students return from winter break on January 6.
*Spring break for students runs March 13 through March 22. Students return from spring break on March 23. Friday, March 13, is a staff professional development day.
*Thursday, May 21, is Washington High School graduation and also the last day of school.
To accommodate child care needs, the YMCA has agreed to provide child centered activities on all professional development days, non-school days, and spring break days. Parents should contact the YMCA for hours and costs associated with these services, contingent upon the YMCA being able to staff our facilities.
Click here for the "Easy to Read" 2019-20 academic calendar.