The plethora of snow days is causing headaches for school districts, with Park Hill adjusting its calendar at the board of education meeting last week.
As of the latest day off on Monday, Park Hill has had 10 snow days so far this school year. At the Thursday, Feb. 28 board meeting, the board approved moving the last day of school to Tuesday, June 4. Days originally scheduled no-school days will now be in session, including Friday, March 15 and Monday, April 22.
Summer school is scheduled to begin on Thursday, June 6 but that date may be pushed to Monday, June 10 if there are additional make-up days required.
The board approved the appointment of five new assistant principals who start their positions in the 2019-2020 school year – Jenny Daniel at Plaza Middle School, Jamie McSparin at Congress and Plaza middle schools, Bryan Phillips at Lakeview and Walden middle schools, Megan Brethower at Hopewell Elementary and Allison Page at Hawthorn and Renner elementary schools.
The price tag for the LEAD Innovation Center is going up, along with the size of the facility. According to district administrators, enrollment this year is 291 students. This includes 144 freshman, and 147 sophomores. Based upon student registration data collected in the last two months, the 2019-2020 freshman class is expected to exceed 220 students, pushing the limits previously set by the board as the new building was designed to educate 600 students.
Administrators suggested expanding the facility now, which would not impact the planned opening in August 2020. The expansion would include 6,700 square feet of instructional space, which would increase the student capacity to 700 students and the total square footage to 67,120 square feet.
The district plans to use existing contractors and add $3.6 million to the $23 million project budget. Administrators recommended the board approve funding the overage though monies in the operating and capital budget.