Christmas break extended one day for Charles City students

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

The teachers still have to come in, but students in the Charles City Community School District will receive one extra day off of school for Christmas this year, the district announced in a press release Thursday.

There will be no school for students on Wednesday, Dec. 22. This day will be a work day for teachers. Students will return to school on Jan. 4, 2022.

The release said that Charles City and other schools across the state and country are experiencing an unprecedented substitute shortage. The district has had 378 unfilled vacancies as of Dec. 1, which have been covered internally by staff. As a result, the district said its teaching staff needs time to check assessments and finalize grades to meet semester deadlines.

The move will not affect the district’s last day of school, which remains May 25, 2022.

“The school wants to give families adequate time to make arrangements for this one-day extension,” said CCSD Superintendent Mike Fisher. “We do apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. We also want to be able to provide the best service possible to our students and families by having our staff finalize grades and assessments that need to be completed. We also want to ensure that our staff gets the full break without work obligations to allow them to come back healthy to best serve our kids.”

The district is taking names of families who need assistance with child care for elementary-age students to provide arrangements through its partnership with TLC. Parents who would like more information should contact the Charles City Middle School at 641-257-6530. The deadline for child care sign-up is Thursday, Dec. 9.

Anyone interested in learning about becoming a substitute teacher with the Charles City Community Schools is asked to contact Tricia Bahlmann at 641-257-6500.