This week, area schools started classes under new school calendar rules set by the state’s last legislative session.
For decades Missouri schools have gotten along just fine without hard and fast rules from the state about start dates, Now there is less wiggle room on start dates, which affect end dates as schools must still meet the number of instructional hours required by the state.
What was wrong with each community deciding through the local board what start date was best for their district? I think the legislature should have left that specific question up to local school boards. Instead it decided to control one more thing. Where does that end?
I saw a question on the internet the other day. A husband said his wife had lost her birth certificate and was unable to vote.
Lots of people lose their birth certificates, marriage licenses and the like. All states have a method to recover those documents. In fact, I was unable to locate my birth certificate years ago and paid the fee to get a new one through the Missouri State Department of Health. I have since located the original while going through old papers in my late parents' lock box. So the wife should be able to do much the same thing. If you have a similar problem, explore how you can get what you need from the state department of health or records.
However, my mother never had a birth certificate and relied on signed statements from those who had known her since childhood to get a passport in the 1970s. I don't know if that is still possible for folks. I also once talked to a woman who had been trying to get her birth certificate replaced from the wrong state. Her parents lived in KC, MO at the time of her birth and for some reason she was born in KC, Kan. She had been assuming she was born in Missouri.
I hope you have been weathering the unusually hot temperatures. Must be pretty hot for the kiddos going home each afternoon on a school bus. Look out for each other and drink lots of water!
