Wheatland School Update

The Wheatland Board of Education recently elected to implement the 4 day school week for the 2024-25 school year. This will prompt several decisions to be made during the coming months as we prepare for next school year. Below are a few bulleted items to provide as much information as we can at this time.

• What day of the week will we be out of school? This has not been determined as of yet, but it very likely will be Monday. Working with other schools in a variety of capacities who have Monday off would make it difficult for us to use Fridays as the off day.

• Calendar: We will be working on the calendar for next year in the next couple of months. The state does not allow us to start before August 19th next year.

• School Day Length: This has yet to be exactly determined but, we anticipate that the start time will be the same. I anticipate that the end of the day will be very close to 3:30pm or before.

• There are more details for us to consider, we will provide more information at a later time.

As you know winter weather can appear at any time. If school is canceled due to weather or any other reason, we will send an automated phone message as well as a text message to all parents. It is important for the school to have your correct contact information. You can update your information at any time in the front office. (417-282-5833 or kkoenig@wheatland.k12.mo.us)

In addition to phone and text messages, school cancellations will be announced via social media, our website and KY3.

The state allows schools to use a limited number of hours toward AMI days. AMI days involve students completing work at home and returning it to school when they return.

• If we use an AMI day, it will be when we can anticipate a weather event and are able to send work home with each student ahead of time.

• This means the work or practice sent home will be in line with what is currently happening in each classroom.

• During AMI days, teachers will be available for questions from students from 10:00am to 12:00pm. The method of communication will be provided by the teacher and will likely be email and/or phone communication.

• If an AMI day is used by the district, it will be announced with the cancellation messages.

New state law requires each school to test water outlets used for consumption for lead. We started the testing process in November by testing all water outlets in the school. The initial results show that our water machines/bottle fillers and a majority of outlets were safely within regulation. However, we did have some other outlets that were above the new threshold or limit set by the state. These outlets were shut down at the time we received the results and are currently not being used. We are currently awaiting a second round of testing on those same water outlets.

This round of testing will help us determine which of the following we need to do:

Add filtration to the water outlet

Replace piping to the water outlet

Remove the water outlet

Regardless of which mitigation process is selected, those outlets will be re-tested to assure they are safe before being used again.