The Sweet Springs Board of Education met Thursday, March 13, to approve the proposed 2008-2009 school calendar and a proposal generated by the teacher committee changing class scheduling.

The proposed calendar year for Sweet Springs school district has school beginning Thursday, Aug. 14, and ending Friday, May 15. This calendar features make-up days reordered to allow spring break to remain more intact. It also includes an early out on the last day before Christmas vacation.

Vice President Robert Fuehring suggested that the start date be pushed back one week because of the Missouri State Fair and the involvement of both students and teachers in the event.

"With teachers gone, we would have to pay substitutes," he said. "It makes more sense to me to push the date back."

Superintendent Boyd Jones said the problem with starting later is the effect on the summer school program.

"There is no rule to how long summer school has to last," he said, but some of the funding the district gets is based on summer school hours and the number of students attending.

President John Dohrman agreed that a later start date would be more appropriate, but there was no sense in having the committee rework the entire year.

The current proposed start date would affect two teachers and about a dozen students; however, the students would have an excused absence with the agriculture program, both FFA and 4-H.

"We need to make a note for next year's committee," Dohrman said.

Another issue, according to Jones, with starting a week later, would have students coming back from Christmas break for one week and then taking the finals for first semester.

Fuehring asked the teachers present at the meeting for their input and several gave feedback.

The calendar was approved with all members voting "yes," except Fuehring.

The board approved the summer school dates as well. The kindergarten through eighth grade students participating in summer school will attend classes from Tuesday, May 27, to Friday, June 27. The high school summer school classes will be set up by individual teachers and would not necessarily coincide with the elementary schedule.

A teacher committee put together a "green" day schedule and proposed it to the board. This committee consisted of Mike Staples, science teacher; Paula Staples, English teacher; Kelley Weber, high school counselor; Tim Smith, high school physical education teacher; and Debbie Summers, English teacher.

Every Monday and Wednesday would be considered "blue" days and students would have their first four classes. Tuesday and Thursday would be "gold" days and students would have their last four classes. "Green" day on Friday would have students going to all eight classes for 40 plus minutes instead of the usual 90 minutes. This plan was devised to allow teachers to see the students in each class three times a week.

According to board member Doug Vogelsmeier, on the current scheduling, if students miss a day they could go up to five days without meeting with the teachers. "I don't like that," he said.

"While there could be unforeseen glitches, a great deal of thought has been put into this schedule with weight given to the positive and the negative aspects of this change," Jones said.

Board member Rodney Heaper said that if students have that class on Thursday and have a game or other event that night with no chance to do homework, "are they expected to have the assignment down on Friday when they get to class?"

Mike Staples said it depended on the teacher. He said he personally would not ask the students to do that. Summers said she would have no problem and probably will ask students have their homework done on that Friday.

"They need to learn to manage their time," she said.

"You won't know it works until you try it," Jones said.

The board passed the "green" day scheduling with Heaper disagreeing.

The next board meeting will be Thursday, April 10, at 7:30 p.m. in the high school library.

Contact Rachel Harper at marshallcity@socket.net