According to principal for student affairs Mary Anne Hoecker, STA’s schedule, which allows for five snow days, will not change after exactly five snow days this year. This means that second semester finals, graduation and the last day of school are still on schedule.
According to principal for academic affairs Barbara McCormick, despite these snow days, students will be in school 174 days, meeting the requirements of the state of Missouri.
According to MO.gov, the official Missouri state website, these requirements do not apply to private or parochial schools, however, STA still chooses to follow them.
STA also follows AdvancED’s accreditation process. According to McCormick, this organization follows the state’s requirements and does not set its own number of instructional days.
According to dese.mo.gov, a website for instructional days and inclement weather, a legal school term may include fewer than 174 days and 1,044 hours during certain types of inclement weather.
The inclement weather rules which “provide relief in the event of weather conditions which pose a threat to the safety and welfare of students” take effect under three circumstances: excessively cold temperatures, snow and ice storms and, under some conditions, excessively heavy rain.
Two of these circumstances, excessively cold temperatures and snow and ice storms, could possibly apply to two of the five snow days STA has had this year.
According to Hoecker, if STA did happen to have another snow day, we would most likely attend school on a day that we normally have off, like Easter Monday. We would also have to consider whether another snow day would actually affect the schedule, as two snow days may not apply due to inclement weather.
Although there is the possibility of another snow day, according to Hoecker, over the last twenty years, STA has never exceeded the number of snow days set into the school calendar.
Hoecker also mentioned how there have been more times when STA has had no snow days.
Although the STA schedule remains the same, both teachers and students have had to adjust to this year’s snow days. According to theology teacher Betsy Hansbrough, the snow days this year initially set her back.
‘One or two snow days is just a gift from God but five is just killing [teachers and students],’Â Hansbrough said.
Hansbrough has managed to keep up despite the setbacks. She used technology and take-home tests to keep her students on track.
‘[My students and I] had a [Moodle] chat on a snow day for one of the classes online and I think if we have snow days next year that’s how I’ll [cope with the snow day],’Â Hansbrough said.
According to one of Hansbrough’s theology and film students, junior Lizzy Imperiale, snow days allow for a much-needed break.
‘They give me an entire day to catch up on the work I haven’t done in the past week,’Â Imperiale said. ‘Other people go and have fun and I just do homework usually and sleep.’Â
However, for Imperiale, the stress begins once again when school is back in session.
‘When I get back to school its always a cram to get the stuff that we missed in,’Â Imperiale said. ‘We have like double the work.’Â
On the other hand, Hansbrough feels like the amount of work she assigns to students is fair.
‘I think [the work I assign is] really fair because it keeps people from getting behind and people are paying tuition here,’Â Hansbrough said.
In any case, students must attend school for a total of 174 days or 1,044 hours.
“It has to do with a formula but basically, it’s not so many days, it’s how many educational hours,” principal Nan Bone said. “If you don’t meet the days, you have to meet the hours.”
