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Schools to Face Consequences of Later Start Date
Waivers allowing K-12 schools to begin their academic year before September 1st will no longer be granted automatically, posing a variety of problems for Iowa schools to confront next fall. By Payton Evans Many Iowa schools are bound to see a later start date for the 2015-2016 academic year. In December of 2014, the Iowa Legislature determined they would no longer automatically grant waivers to schools wishing to start before September 1, under a longstanding, previously implemented law. “Concerns that we have heard from people, as indicated in the letter I sent to districts, as well as a letter from the Governor asking us to reconsider the waiver policy prompted this decision,” Director of Education Brad Buck said. A later start date poses a variety of problems for high schools, including issues related to athletic calendars and AP testing. For students utilizing advanced placement courses, a school start date two or more weeks later than the start dates of many Iowa schools in recent years will diminish the amount of instruction before AP testing. “Teachers have less time to teach the certain subject which will probably bring down scores on the AP tests, which will also bring down the school’s average for the AP tests,” Mohamed Shaban ‘16 said. “Something that City seems to pride themselves on is the number of AP and honors classes we offer, but this won’t matter as much if the test scores aren’t there to show for it.” When it comes to dual enrollment programs, colleges aren’t going to change their start date in order to coincide with the high schools’, posing potential
transportation issues for students living in college towns and participating in dual enrollment courses,. Another potential transportation issue arises when it comes to athletics. The Iowa High School State
Athletic Association and The Girls High School Athletic Union have already voiced that they don’t plan to change sports seasons to coincide with the school year. “It’s highly likely that we’re going to have lots of
competitions in the fall before school starts,” Murley said. “That presents a problem for kids that depend on school buses to get to school so that they can be there and participate in practices.” Students also share this concern, but for different reasons. “It will be different playing before classes start,” varsity volleyball player Alexa Ingram said. “Obviously not as many people will go to our games, so it won’t be as fun playing without people there.” Some, including Governor Terry Branstad, argue that moving back the start date will improve Iowa’s tourism economy by creating less interference with the Iowa State Fair. Branstad also argued that starting school in early to mid-August “unnecessarily interferes with families’ summer plans and seasonal hiring,” including student participation in the fair. However, waivers will still be granted to school districts demonstrating a “significant negative educational impact” from the later start date. “We are working to establish criteria and apply those criteria to calendars to determine if the standard for significant negative educational impact has been met,” Buck said. “We will have the criteria for and process to apply for a waiver out very soon.” Murley believes that the Iowa City School District plans to pursue a waiver for the 2015-2016 school year. “The state Department of Education is supposed to provide us with some guidance on what exactly would be considered a negative educational impact,” Murley said. “Once we get that we’ll know how they define it and how we can go about submitting an application for a waiver.”
‘If You Really Knew Me’ Seeks to Create a Sense of Community By Jonathan House Each Tuesday afternoon, right after school, a small group of City High students can be found in the Opstad gallery, sitting in a circle, providing support to one another. These students are members of City High’s newest club, “If You Really Knew Me,” which aims to provide support to students dealing with anxiety through discussion and relationship building. “High school students are definitely stressed out, especially sophomore year, because everybody is starting to take all the AP and honors classes,” Miranda Livingston ‘16, club founder, said. “So all that pressure is really being shoved on students.” Livingston got the idea to start the club after hearing about a similar club founded at West High School. She says the club aims to create a
sense of community to help other people dealing with issues similar to hers. “As someone who has dealt with a lot of anxiety, and mental health issues and that stuff, I know that [school] can be kind of hard, and you don’t really realize just how many people deal with that stuff,” Livingston said. “We kind of just wanted to create a group where people can come talk about [their issues], and just create a sense of community.” Faculty sponsor and guidance counselor Tara Kolker said she believes there was a need for a group that unites the student body. “I think any counselor in the building, and a lot of teachers would also agree that we see a lot of kids come in and out of City High who deal with different mental health issues. Whether that is anxiety, or depression, or they may be dealing with something like cutting,” Kolker said. “[This club provides] different cop-
ing skills that they don’t have right now. A lot of kids just need some support in that area, and I think they need a safe place to go where they know aren’t the only person dealing with this,” she said. “I wanted to get that started, so that kids do have that opportunity to have a place to come together, get support from others, and make a difference in the community, where they are raising mental health awareness.” Club members can share their problems in return for support. In addition, the club is trying to raise awareness to increase membership, and to raise awareness about mental health issues in the community. “Our huge goal is just promoting acceptance and awareness of mental health issues. I think that will make a big impact in the long run,” Kolker said. “They are working on the NAMI, which is the National Alliance for Mental Illness board, right now to bring some new things to
legislature, so I think that’ll make a huge impact nationwide.” One of the projects the club is working on is a music video, based on one by Safetysuit, which will feature their song “These Times.” Students will hold up cards with their issues written. The song discusses how even though life can be difficult, we can make it through. The club thought it was a really powerful and important message, one they wanted to spread. “The song is about how times are tough, but you can get through them,”Livingston said. “We found the video really powerful, and we wanted to recreate it.” The video will be remade and shown in homeroom. Julieta Rangel ‘16, club member, believe that the community has helped her, and is what she believes is the most important part of the club. “We want to build a strong rela-
tionship with other students, and I think that’s really important,” Rangel said. “Especially when you are dealing with other things during school, like work.” Kolker agrees that while increasing awareness of mental health issues within the community is important, the whole point of the club is to provide a community students can go to to feeling comfortable talking with. “Right now, when we get together, we’re working on making the group more well known to the school,” Kolker said. “[We are] trying to figure out what they can do to increase membership, and once we have more members coming, our plan is to work on different uplifting activities. We want to make this a place where students, if they are going through a hard time at home, have different tools in their toolbox to deal with their mental health needs in a healthy way.”