School start date unlikely to change for Mt. Pleasant

MT. PLEASANT — Mt. Pleasant Community School District received word last week that its hopes of the school start date changing during the latest legislative session died in both the house and senate.

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“According to the School Administrators of Iowa, lobbyists we get our information from regarding the legislative process, changing the school start date from Aug. 23 seems to be dead in both the house and the senate,” MPCSD Superintendent John Henriksen informed the school board at their March meeting.

Henriksen went on to say his source stated that Gov. Kim Reynolds would still like to get something done, but the bill is currently dead.

“The lobby for tourism is lobbying heavy, heavy, heavy,” Henriksen continued. “They don’t want to see any change in that start date. So, right now, we still have a start date of Aug. 23, which is a Friday.”

Meeting with committees about various calendar options, Henriksen presented the most likely option for the 2024-25 school year, which will not include a weeklong spring break. A less likely option presented by Henriksen to the board included the weeklong spring break if school could begin only three days earlier on Aug. 20.

“This calendar does not have a full week of spring break,” Henriksen stated. “That was a direction I received from board committee members. The teacher committee asked to see a calendar without a full week of spring break, as well.”

The calendar will still include no school on Good Friday and the following Monday with the final day for students set for May 23, 2025.

Henriksen attributes the inability to schedule a weeklong spring break to not only the start date, but also the fact that Christmas 2024 will land on a Wednesday along with New Year’s Day 2025.

“The really difficult thing about this calendar, in particular in Mt. Pleasant, is that we lose two full days on the front for Old Threshers,” Henriksen pointed out. “Then with the Christmas on a Wednesday, then Jan. 1 on a Wednesday, it’s really difficult to capture any days on either side of that Wednesday.”

Even with the possibility of needing to step away from the full-week spring break in the next school year, Henriksen assured the board that it could still return in following years.

For now, the calendar is not yet finalized.

Comments: AnnaMarie.Ward@southeastiowaunion.com