Multiple snow days cause longer school year, cancel events
After a massive snowfall in early January, Rockwood called for six consecutive snow days starting January 2, and ending January 9, with school continuing on January 10. The large cancellation caused multiple school events to be cancelled, but it also will affect the amounts of days of school for students this year.
So far, Rockwood has had a total of seven snow days, with one in December and the six in a row that occurred in early January. Missouri requires schools to have a minimum of 174 days in it’s calendar to count as an official school year. Rockwood is built on a 180 day calendar instead, so that there would be six extra days that could be used in case of school cancellations. However, since there have been seven snow days this year, the six back up days have been spent, and an additional day will have to be added to the end of the school year to reach the required 174 days.
“Instead of May 22 being students’ last day, May 23 will now be students’ last day, with the teacher work day being on May 27,” Principal John Shaughnessy said. “If we miss more days this winter, then the school calendar will be extended into May.”
Due to the snow days, many sporting events had to be cancelled and rescheduled. Included in these cancellations were girls freshman basketball games against Parkway North and Parkway South, and a group of boys freshman, junior varsity and varsity basketball games versus Kirkwood High School have been moved to Feb. 17. Two swim meets (one against Parkway West and the second against Ladue High School) have been moved to later in January. the Parkway West swim meet will be on Jan. 17, and the Ladue meet will be on Jan. 21
As well as sports cancellations, multiple school events where also canceled. One of these was an opportunity for students to have their Yearbook photos retaken. The retakes have been rescheduled for Jan. 27, for any student who wants to retake their photo, or did not have one taken at the beginning of the school year, can have the opportunity to do so. Also cancelled was the school curriculum night, which instead will be held on Jan. 15 in the Commons.
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![[Classroom] will be blocked off for students starting next year, Willot said. Canvas will be the primary resource for accessing online classwork beginning next school year.](https://lancerfeed.press/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/canvas-600x400.png)
![Sophomore Mary Kirtley holds her Dressember Foundation button. The buttons are passed down to the new STL Spark executive board members each year and they are encouraged to place them on their backpacks to help raise awareness about human trafficking. My sister, [Class of 2020 alumni] Grace Kirtley, started STL Spark when she was in high school and she would have people carry it on after she graduated, Mary said. Last year I got invited to join the board again with my sister, senior Patty Kirtley, and so weve been working on carrying her legacy a bit. Its become somewhat of a family project.](https://lancerfeed.press/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/IMG_5696-e1700061260167-600x400.jpg)
