School Calendar

As you are likely aware Iowa Department of Education Director, Brad Buck, issued a statement to Iowa districts last week stating that early start date waivers will no longer be "automatically" approved.  CCA is waiting on guidance from the DE as to what will constitute good cause for a waiver, guidance is expected in January.

In the meantime we are working on a calendar that would meet the statutory start time.  As will calendar every year, the Wednesday prior to Thanksgiving, Christmas/Winter Break, and Spring Break are all hot topics.  In my experience there is no calendar that everyone loves and supports.  If we could start late, take a long winter break, long spring break, and get our early, that might work.  :-) But, I have yet to see that calendar exist.  The transition to hours would allow it, but we would need to significantly lengthen our school day.

There are also significant concerns on the impact of a late start with middle and high school activities, as well as our student who participate in courses through Kirkwood Community College. All of these things will need to be considered as we develop the calendar.

At this point it looks like CCA will plan to have a later start than we've had traditionally.  However the breaks pan out during the year, families can anticipate the planned final day of the year falling in June, instead of May.

Sincerely,

Tim Kuehl