Wednesday late starts eliminated in proposed school calendar

By Kate Hayden, khayden@charlescitypress.com

The proposed school calendar for 2017-18 would eliminate late-start Wednesdays in the Charles City school district.

Instead of holding professional development on Wednesday mornings, Charles City teachers would attend five full days of professional learning, one day every other month. A public hearing on the proposed calendar will be held at 6:30 p.m. March 20, in the seventh grade wing of the Charles City Middle School.

Homecoming week would be Sept. 18-22. Winter break would run from Dec. 25 to Jan. 1. There would be no school on Jan. 2, instead it would be a professional learning day for district staff.

The calendar keeps spring break intact from March 12-16, and puts high school graduation on May 27, the Sunday before Memorial Day.

The calendar also includes two vacation days that could be used as missed-school makeup days: Nov. 22, which is the day before the Nov. 23-24 Thanksgiving school break, and Dec. 22, which is the Friday before the winter break begins.

The School Board Election date is set for Sept. 12. This year, the seats of Board President Scott Dight and board members Lorraine Winterink and Jim Frisbie will be up for election. Candidates typically begin filing campaign papers at the start of July and have until July 30 to file.

In the new calendar, school times would run from 8:20 a.m. to 3:10 p.m. in the elementary schools, and 8:20 a.m. to 3:20 p.m. in the middle school and the high school. That timing will allow the district to move the bus changes to the Charles City Middle School, instead of having it continue at the 500 North Grand building. Those start times will be later: this year, school begins at 8:15 a.m. for elementary students and 8:10 a.m. for middle school/high school students.

District administration received more than 100 Facebook comments when it asked for family and staff feedback, Superintendent Dr. Dan Cox told the Board of Education on Monday. The calendar does not replace dedicated weekly professional development among staff that the late-start Wednesdays provided.

Teachers could do the same kind of work between 7:30-8:10 a.m. and leave for the day at 3:30 p.m., or they could arrive at 8 a.m. and stay longer after the school day, Dr. Cox said.

“It puts the onus on the instructional staff to find the day or time that works best for their department to continue that ongoing collaborative work,” Dr. Cox said.