School admins react to change in start date

While Friday’s Iowa Department of Education announcement didn’t exactly prohibit schools starting before Sept. 1, it certainly sent a message that was heard across the state.

A letter from IDOE Director Brad A. Buck was sent out Friday to school administrators and other educators across the state. The letter states the IDOE will “no longer automatically grant waivers of the school start date requested under Iowa Code section 279.10(4) for the 2015-2016 school year.”

The letter was released on the heels of a letter to Buck from Gov. Terry Branstad’s office, which “requests” Buck’s department no longer automatically grant waivers to start school before Sept. 1.

The letter states, in part, “starting in early to mid-August unnecessarily interferes with families’ summer plans and seasonal hiring, while it does nothing to improve the quality of education.”

Branstad also said, in his letter, the state fair is one of the activities that cause students to miss school in August. The 2015 Iowa State Fair is set for Aug. 13-23. This year, all five school districts in Jasper County were among the 336 Iowa districts that were granted waivers to start classes before Sept. 1.

Colfax-Mingo started classes on Aug. 14. Baxter Community Schools started school on Aug. 18; Newton began on Aug. 19, and Lynnville-Sully and Prairie City-Monroe began on Aug. 20.

Local administrators voiced their issues this week with to the IDOE decision.

Newton Community School District Superintendent Bob Callaghan said students who are dually enrolled in both high school and college classes will be one of the groups who would be impacted the most, while Baxter High School Principal and head football coach Rob Luther pointed out a number of concerns regarding extra-curricular activities.

“These college first- and second-semester start-end dates will drive the student schedules seeking college credit,” Callaghan said. “The change — away from waivers to a mandated start day — will impact these students and their ability to begin and end college courses in both semesters.”

The 2015-16 Des Moines Area Community College Newton Campus fall semester is set to run from Aug. 20 to Dec. 10, and the spring semester runs Jan. 11 to May 5, 2016.

“Because of the division of the 180-day school year into equal halves, the first semester would have to complete in January and colleges will be starting their new schedule when high schools are still in the old schedule,” Callaghan said. “Also, the colleges would begin at least nine days earlier in the fall, when our students still have not reported.”

Callaghan also mentioned the dates of official Iowa High School Athletic Association first official practices and first competition dates as complicating factors. Aug. 18 was the IHSAA’s first day of full-contact football practice for 2014, and Aug. 28 was the first game date permitted.

Luther said, while it’s not unusual to have a few days of official practice before school starts each year, an early September start could end up pulling student-athletes onto campus three or four weeks before classes begin.

“Asking coaches and players to hold their teams together for four full weeks, with no games, is tough,” Luther said. “And middle school football is something where a great deal of what we do takes place after school has started.”

Luther said Baxter, which has grades 9-12 and enrollment of about 125 students, usually has around six to 12 students gone for at least one day to participate in a state fair competition. He said it’s a minor adjustment, and he didn’t recall seeing a student take extended time off from school due the fair.

Schools are required to schedule either 1,080 hours of instruction or 180 days. Lynnville-Sully’s online calendar includes 174 scheduled “student contact” days, but must still equal 1,080 hours of instruction.

Baxter’s online calendar has an Aug. 20 first day of fall-semester classes and a May 19 final day of classes. The Baxter calendar has 179 days of student classroom time, with 1,110 total hours of instruction.

Teachers, counselors and administrators must adjust for deadlines such as DMACC registration, Callaghan said. Also, teachers typically must complete inservice, hold regular meetings and special events within the school year, as opposed to the summer, and a September start date might compress the school year.

The letter from Buck said the IDOE will issue more guidance “in early 2015” regarding implementation of the Sept. 1 start-date law. Iowa Code 279.10 calls for school to start no sooner than the week that includes Sept. 1.

The Prairie City-Monroe school board had a public hearing for a 2015-16 calendar on its agenda for Monday’s meeting, but voted to remove the item from the agenda.

PCM board vice president Alvin Keuning said it seems like the DOE is adamant about only inviting schools to apply for Sept. 1 waivers if they “really, really need it.”

Keuning said there was probably a lot of pressure on both the governor and the DOE to keep central Iowa’s teen labor pool available during the summer months.

“There was probably a strong lobby to have school start Sept. 1,” Keuning said. “Between Adventureland, the state fair, and other summer things, they employ a lot of young people.”

Luther said the directive will cause districts to scramble, as many are in the process of creating their 2015-16 calendars, if they haven’t done so already.

“This changes the way we do business — greatly,” Luther said.

Contact Jason W. Brooks at 641-792-3121 ext. 6532 or jbrooks@newtondailynews.com