Guest Editorial: Local control is important to Iowa schools

by Dave Herold
Superintendent of Schools
Allamakee Community School District

The following letter is one that I wrote to Dr. Brad Buck, Director of the Iowa Department of Education, Iowa Governor (Terry Branstad) and our local legislators.  Dr. Buck sent a letter to all Iowa schools this week letting them know that early start waivers would not be accepted anymore except in extreme circumstances.  This is my response to that letter.

Dear Dr. Buck:
I felt the need for a response to your letter dated December 12 concerning the Department of Education’s directive to the calendar start date for the following school year. It is my belief that the start date for any Iowa school should be decided by each Board of Education. I share my thoughts concerning this mandate on the start of school based on my specific school and our specific situation:
1. Our school has 36 different college classes that are being taken by our students this fall. Those classes started August 21 and will end December 18. We have over 1,220 college credits coming from these dual enrolled classes this semester.  In fact, over 50% of our students, 9-12, take college classes.  This PK-14 educational philosophy is very important for our students, parents, and community. Especially since Allamakee County has historically been one of the highest in unemployment (per capita) in the State of Iowa for the past 10 years. We believe that this philosophy helps to jump-start students into a possible career choice, or gain valuable college credit to help level the playing field for disadvantaged families that cannot afford to send their children to college.  In fact, this year our parents will see a savings of almost one million dollars in tuition costs based on the credits earned by their children through our dual enrollment programs. Unfortunately, unless community colleges are also required to change their calendar to reflect ours (the new start date mandate), this sharing agreement may need to be changed, and possibly canceled, especially since many of the teachers, under the school district’s contract, are district employees and community college instructors as well. If these instructors are contracted to teach 180 days of school (or 1080 hours), they will need to follow the school district contract, not the calendar of the community college. If that happens, the community college will need to employ staff outside of the school district at a higher cost, which would not be feasible, or enough to cover the supplemental weighting funds we currently receive. This valuable education, for our students, parents, and community, would now be lost or put in jeopardy because of a mandate put together by the state of Iowa for the sake of the State Fair, Adventureland, or other tourism destinations that may be four hours away or more from our community. This is unfitting for our community, especially given the fact that we have students, parents, and community members that do attend these events without missing valuable class time.  Local control has always worked best for our school district.
2. School in August is much more beneficial to students than school in June.  That is not only based on over 25 years of educational experience, but also given the fact that 99% of the schools in the State of Iowa choose this option (early start waiver). In addition, our school district is the fourth largest in Iowa in square miles (417 square miles). We have 23 bus routes, which transport 769 students on a regular basis, which brings our transportation costs to approximately one-million dollars a year. This in itself is one of the largest inequities concerning state funding already. Add to that, the terrain of our county that includes hills, curves, miles and miles of gravel roads. Very few school districts in the state of Iowa have the square miles and difficult terrain that we have to travel on a daily basis. Add to that, the difficulty of travel in the northeast most region of the state where snowfall, icy conditions, and fog are experienced nowhere else in the state. In fact, we had to make up eleven days last year because of inclement weather, those days were added to the end of the year.  If we are mandated to begin on August 31 (which would be the earliest we could start next year based on the DE mandate), we will be going to school until mid-June, not because we want to, but because we had to based solely on the safety of our staff and students and where we are located geographically. In the past, we tried to get in as many days as we could early in the year, (August) because December, January, and February are more difficult to get in full days because of inclement weather.  I am also concerned that this mandate will make decisions regarding weather (early out, late start, no school) more difficult because we will want to try to get days in during poor weather months. We have always made decisions based on the side of caution and I am concerned this will stretch those decisions to the limit.  Local control has always allowed our school to build our calendar around the safety of students and staff because of our terrain and large geographical area.
3. Arguments for changing to a later starting date include early dismissals for heat. Until this year, our school district had 180 days of instruction at 6.5 hours a day (except for 21 hours of professional development). We have very few days, historically, for early dismissals for heat. If we averaged 5 days a year and we dismissed 2 hours early for heat on those days, this number would still go well beyond the 1080 hours that are now accepted as a ‘school calendar year’.  Also, keep in mind, that snow days and days off for ice or fog are much more prevalent than days out early for heat.  We miss very few days for inclement weather before the first of the year because most days missed are after the first of the year. With that said, it would make more sense for our district to have as many days as we can during the first semester when the weather is better than during the second semester when we miss days for inclement weather. Our difficulty concerning weather is not August but December, January and February. Again, I will reiterate, students are much more ready and willing to learn in August than June in our geographical location. In addition, we miss many more days and instructional time due to inclement weather (snow, ice, and fog) than early dismissals for heat.  Local control makes our calendar decision an easy one when it comes to heat versus inclement weather for snow, ice, or fog.
4. We have always taken our testing in mid to late January. This way, we have always been able to share the results with students and parents in late March or early April at conference time. In addition, if you look over our test scores historically, we have been very successful taking exams during this time. In fact, our scores have been very good despite being a Title I school with a free and reduced lunch close to 50%. If our school year starts 10-15 days later than usual, this means that by our normal testing date we will have up to 90 hours less instructional time than we have currently. There is no doubt that this will negatively affect student achievement. If we move testing back, it will be difficult to compare year-to-year comparisons. If we have a number of snow days before the test date, this will add to the hours of instruction missed. Local control allows us to pick the proper time, place and date to test our students.
5. It has also not been determined how this will affect our fall activity schedules.  The Iowa High School Athletic Association and Iowa High School Girls Athletic Union begin practices around the 10th of August. In fact, most sports camps begin the first week of August. If students are at camp or school activities (sports, band camp, etc.), they would not be at the State Fair or other state venues that support tourism. I am also concerned that these organizations have not been contacted regarding the early start mandate. If students are attending these camps and activities in early August, it would only make sense that the families of these students are ready for the school year to begin as well and probably not on vacation at this time.  If it is determined that sports activity schedules (Athletic Associations) are moved as well to a later date, I have a major concern with that decision as well. How many different organizations, schools, etc., have been affected by a decision that benefits so few?  Local control has been a philosophy that other states have envied and have been an effective way to manage our schools in a way that benefits all.
As you can see, Dr. Buck, I truly am a strong believer in local control. Local control has allowed our Board of Education to make decisions that are best for our students, parents, and constituents of the school district. Our district does not have the same makeup as other school districts in the state. The later start date philosophy employs a ‘one size fits all’ that sounds good, but overall it is good for only a few. It is obviously not a sound philosophy for our district. Based on what I mentioned above, there is no doubt in my mind that a later start date will have a huge negative impact on student achievement in our school district. It will also affect our PK-14 educational philosophy concerning our community college and keep our students in class well into June. Please reconsider this decision. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Respectfully,
David Herold
Superintendent of Schools