Greene County students will have a full week of spring break if the board of education approves the most recent draft of the calendar for 2015-16.
The proposed calendar names Aug. 20-21 as work days for teachers and Monday, Aug. 24, as the first day for students. The calendar does not list any full days for teacher professional development (no school for students), but it does continue 1:45 dismissals every Wednesday as in the past two years.
The winter break will be Dec. 23 through Jan. 4. New in the calendar is a week long break March 21-25. (Easter is March 27 next year.) Superintendent Tim Christensen explained that the biannual Spanish Club trip was a consideration in planning for the longer break. “We know the importance of student attendance and having our best teachers in front of students. It makes more sense to have a week long spring break to allow this type of trip instead of having 30 students miss a week of school and having substitute teachers in the classroom for a week,” Christensen said.
The last day of school would be Friday, May 27, with teachers returning to school for a work day May 31, the Tuesday following Memorial Day.
Approval of the 2015-16 calendar is on the agenda for the board of education’s regular meeting this Wednesday, April 15. To see the draft calendar, click here: 2015-16 calendar
The board has been unable to approve a calendar pending action by the Iowa legislature following an announcement last December that the State Department of Education would no longer grant waivers to school districts that wanted to start earlier than what was named in the Code of Iowa (the week that includes Sept. 1).
The new law, signed by Gov Terry Branstad last Friday, requires schools to start later than Aug. 23. The use of waivers was so common in previous years that for the 2014-15 school year, only 14 of Iowa’s 338 school districts started later than Aug. 23. Greene County schools started Aug. 20.
