The winter break afforded me the opportunity to reflect on the first semester of school hereat Woodward-Granger CSD. There was a tremendous amount accomplished the first semester of the 2019-2020 school year and the teachers and students worked hard to set the stage for a tremendous school year. It is clear we have students engaged in a lot of opportunities as we work tirelessly to building futures one student at a time in a supportive culture of high expectations. I’m looking forward to the second semester and know we’ll continue to accomplish great things this spring.
One of the most well established findings from research concerns the opportunity to learn. If students do not have access to sufficient instructional time it can have an impact on student learning. Time is an important resource to accomplish our work at Woodward-Granger CSD. In consideration of time, we first look at the ‘allocated time’. This would be the total time for teacher instruction and student learning. At W-G we’ve allocated 6.5 hours a day for our teachers and students to accomplish their work. For the2020-21 school year we are proposing to start school 15 minutes earlier with classes in session at 8:15 am. As we’ve discussed this opportunity it was noted our students, for the most part, are already in school waiting patiently in the gym or hallways to be released to their classrooms to engage in learning. Allocating an additional 15minutes a day would equate to over 44 hours of instruction during the 2020-21 school year.
Iowa Code has established a minimum standard for the amount of time students must attend school each year. Many of us grew up attending school for 180 days and can “fondly” remember making up snow days at the end of the year to meet this minimum requirement. In recent years the legislature provided flexibility to Iowa schools by allowing districts to submit an ‘hourly calendar’ instead of a ‘days calendar’. In an hourly calendar the minimum standard established by law is 1080hours. W-G elected to submit an hourly calendar to the state and this year during the 2019-20school year we have allocated 1084.5 hours. Unfortunately, the early November snow storm forced us to start school late and use two of the 4.5 additional hours built into the calendar.
Our current school calendar has a built-in snow day on Monday, January 20, 2020. During the December board meeting the board of directors approved using this available day as a day of instruction. Classes will be in session on Monday, January 20th. We felt it was important to communicate this early with families. I think this proactive approach is warranted considering Iowa winters. I hope we don’t have to recapture too much time this year due to winter weather!
On the agenda for the January board meeting is a public hearing for the 2020-21 school calendar. Thank you to everyone that participated in our calendar survey. The survey results helped guide the calendar committee in the development of the proposed calendar.
We’ve all heard the old adage “Use your time wisely”. At W-G we are committed to continuous improvement and will work relentlessly to ensure the time allocated to our teachers and students will be used effectively to build futures for our students!
Dr. Matt Adams
Superintendent
