CHAMOIS — Chamois R-1 school board members approved the calendar for the 2026-27 school year at their meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 11. The biggest change for the upcoming year is the late start date, which is set for Aug. 25.

“The late start date is required by law,” Superintendent Lyle Best said. “Some folks don’t like it because it creates an imbalance in the semesters. It does push back our end date. If you start later, you are going to end later.”

The last day of school for the school district will be May 28.

At the January meeting, Best mentioned that several school districts had requested a waiver from the Missouri Department of Secondary and Elementary Education (DESE) so that they could start classes earlier. All these waivers were denied.

“None of them really fit the criteria to grant a waiver,” Best said. “We know that is the final decision now, and there is no point for us to try to pursue a waiver to start school earlier.”

Other than the later start and end date, the outline is similar to the current calendar. There are 152 student days for a total of 1,098.64 hours. Teacher days will total 164 days, and new teachers will have 167 days scheduled.

One change will be that parent-teacher conferences will be moved to a Thursday instead of a Monday. Conferences are scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 22; Friday, Oct. 23, will be a day off from school for students and staff. Christmas break is scheduled for Dec. 21 through Jan. 1, with the first day back in classes for students on Tuesday, Jan. 5.

In other business, board members approved the medical plan renewals for district staff at $573 per employee.

“That will cover the next-to-lowest cost plan for medical insurance,” Best said.

The medical insurance plans went up this year by 9%, which was higher than in previous years. Best noted that 4% and 5% increases have been normal for the past 10 years.

There was no change in life, vision, or dental insurance premiums.

“Our 2017 contributions for health insurance were $475; within the last 10 years, we haven’t increased it by $100,” Best explained. “I think we should cover one plan higher than what we are doing now.”

The total cost to the school district would be $20,000 annually.

Board President Steve Cramer asked if the budget could handle the increased expense.

“I think it is something we just need to do,” Best said. “Everything is pretty healthy right now (referring to the budget). I think it is important to help pay premiums even if it isn’t flashy.”

* Board members also reviewed Best’s suggestion for changes to the salary schedule for the upcoming year.

He recommended adding a $500 bonus for teachers with a bachelor’s degree and 5-9 years’ experience and an extra $500 bonus for teachers with a bachelor’s degree and 10 years’ experience.

He also recommended a $1,000 salary increase for teachers with a master’s degree and 10-plus years of teaching.

Best estimated that the changes would add $10,000 to the total budget.

The board will revisit salary changes in the upcoming months.

* The district will have a public informational meeting on March 24 at 7 p.m. to discuss the upcoming bond issue on the April ballot. Information has been posted on the school’s website, and all are welcome to attend.

* The school’s recent assessments of students have been disappointing, with students showing below grade level in both English Language Arts (ELA) and math.

“Obviously, we’d like to see those numbers improve,” Best said. “Math continues to show that we have no one at grade level, which is concerning in grades six through 10. This is not a positive trend.”

There was some improvement in elementary math from fall to winter, with a little over 50% at or below grade level.

“Hopefully, this will improve by the end of the year and carry over into the MAP scores.”

ELA testing data showed that 40% of students were at or below grade level in grades 3-5.

“This is not entirely off what we have seen in the past,” Best said. “When we look at these standardized tests, we know we are lagging behind where we want to be, but these are important to look at.”

* Best and Principal Jeremy McKague would like to make changes to the district’s grading and assessment policies.

“We are looking at our data and how the state assessment tests scores and benchmarks on things compare with the grades we’re giving in class,” Best said. “What we’ve seen over the years is a higher number of scores below basic or basic and a few numbers that are proficient, and often there is not much alignment with grading. The grading seems to be heavily inflated compared to the standardized tests.

“If students are getting As and Bs in the classroom, they should be scoring proficient or advanced on the standardized tests, which is not what they are scoring,” Best continued. “What they are scoring is considerably lower. Most of our students are scoring below grade level in ELA and Math.”

Best points out that he does not believe that anyone is doing anything wrong, but that there isn’t enough guidance from the district on how the teachers should be assessing students on a day-to-day basis.

“Our existing policy is pretty vague,” Best said. “From a district level, there is some work we could do with the policies we have, and any kind of guidance we can give for a system that is more focused on what the student is able to do at the grade level with the standards they are going to ultimately have to be assessed on.”

Best stressed that the focus needs to be on what the student knows and that the grading policies must align with the curriculum. He thinks that more of the students’ grades should be based on assessment.

“We need to get better at how the students score on standardized tests,” Best said.

“Are we going to hold the teachers to the same standard?” Cramer asked. “It’s my understanding there are some teachers who only give two to three grades for a semester, if a kid is struggling, and does badly on one test, they are doomed.”

“We run into that,” McKague acknowledged. “We need to look at why certain assignments are worth 100 points and why some are worth 10 points.

McKague explained that he thinks grades are slightly inflated and that the standardized test scores are wrong.

“The students don’t have a lot at stake in the assessment tests,” McKague said. “Both things will never be the same, but we shouldn’t have students below grade level on an assessment getting 95% to 100% in the same class. We don’t want kids to flunk. We just want the grades to reflect what they know.”

“We’re not trying to tie everything to the assessments, but they are a big deal,” Best said. “We need to have more emphasis in our policies and practices than what we have now. We need some uniformity.”

Best and McKague believe the district could provide more guidance to the teachers.

“I think we can do better with how our grading is implemented and what they reflect,” Best said, noting that he and McKague will investigate setting up a new policy of grading in the classroom over the next several months.

* Best and McKague would like to make changes to the district attendance policy for the next school year.

“The problem is confusion for everyone,” McKague said. “We have parents whose kids are really sick, and they won’t call in, so those kids’ absences are unexcused. We want the kids to be here. We think that by changing the attendance policy, we can encourage the kids to be here without unfairly punishing students.”

The new policy would allow each student to have seven absences, and after that, the absences would be assessed. If a student has over 10 absences in a class, the student would lose credit for that class. Students who have an unexcused absence would also receive a zero for the class for that day. The district would have a committee made up of staff and students that a student could appeal to in the case of special circumstances.

“The new policy would put a little more pressure on the students because credit could be withheld,” McKague said. “This will make the office’s job much easier.”

Best hopes to present the new attendance policy in its final form at the next board meeting.

* Board members approved outstanding February expenses totaling $73,573.35.

* The district had the following ending account balances: general ($3,078,638), special ($102,088), and capital projects ($845,416).

* The next meeting is scheduled for March 11 at 7 p.m.

SUPERINTENDENT REPORT

Best reported that he is pleased with the low number of discipline referrals the school is seeing.

“We don’t have a large number of students with referrals,” Best said. “We might have 10 in a month with five students who contribute to those 10.”

* Best said that several bills in the Missouri State Legislature may affect education. Open enrollment has been a popular subject in the past several years, and Best believes it is gaining some momentum in the state senate.

“There are more requirements than we have seen in the past,” Best said, noting that transportation requirements had been increased, and participation would be mandatory. “In the end, who knows?”

One bill would require mandatory screening for gifted students by the third grade. Another bill would have put a government board in charge of the Missouri State High School Activities Association (MSHSAA).

“A lot of folks have an issue with that based on the fact that currently schools pay a membership to MSHSAA and vote for board members,” Best explained. “This would put a group in charge that we don’t have a say in.”

A measure that would require cursive writing to be taught in all districts, with an assessment for fifth-grade students also being considered.

“I don’t think folks have an issue with teaching cursive, but requiring another assessment to be given seems to be a lot,” Best said.

Changes have been proposed to the literacy bill that include mandatory retention. There is a program being considered that would allow junior colleges to teach an associate’s degree in teaching. There are also numerous bills that are looking to reduce taxes that may affect funds for public school districts.

Gov. Mike Kehoe issued an executive order for school districts to be given a grade of A through F.

“It is supposed to make it easier for parents and people to understand how well a school is performing,” Best said.

He is concerned about whether the grading would be fair and how schools would be assessed. “Their idea is that the district should continue to get better; we all want that, but if you are performing well, it’s sometimes difficult to continue to get better, and the goal should be performing well,” Best said.

Another pending bill is legislation that would alter trainings required for teachers.

“They are trying to pass some things that would reduce the number of trainings or put them on a rotational basis,” Best explained. “That would be nice. I don’t know how they would undo all the legislation that requires that, but I’m hoping they’ll figure it out.”

Staff have continued working on the District Improvement Plan by having data team meetings, learning walks, establishing a curriculum committee, and scheduling peer-to-peer reviews.

PRINCIPAL REPORT

McKague reported that students were slated to participate in Random Acts of Kindness Day on Feb. 17.

* On Feb. 26, seventh and eighth-graders will go to State Technical College for an exploration day.

* Kindergarten round-up is scheduled for March 2 and March 13 with “Be a Math Family” night.

“We had good attendance for this event last year,” McKague said.

* The attendance rate at elementary school was reported at 93.7%, and the junior high and high school was a little higher at 94.6%.