Calendar changes face Cedar Rapids board

A few more calendar tweaks might be on deck for Cedar Rapids Community School District families.

During Monday's regular meeting, Superintendent Dave Benson informed board members of an impending proposal to tweak the 2014-15 calendar following the board's June 9 decision to approve measuring the year in hours instead of days. The potential amendments include canceling scheduled early dismissals on Oct. 8, Oct. 29, Nov. 5, April 15, April 29 and May in favor of full-release days. Students would not report on those days but staff members would do professional learning.

Benson said those alterations were based on suggestions from members of the district's School Improvement Advisory Committee and feedback on the EngageCRSchools community response website.

October 22 and May 6, both Wednesdays, were initial suggestions for the full-release days and would be in line with the district's practice of dismissing early for staff professional learning two Wednesdays each month. However, Benson since suggested that administrators would look into moving those dates to October 24 and May 8, which are Fridays.

'That would give parents a three-day weekend and the opportunity to have a longer period of time,” Benson said of the switch, which also arose in part from online input. If approved, Benson said administrators would look to continue in this direction for subsequent calendars.

Administrators are also looking to propose rescheduling spring break, scheduled for Monday, March 23 through Friday, March 27, potentially to Monday, March 16 through Friday, March 20, in order to align with Kirkwood Community College. Benson cited the population of district high-schoolers who take classes at Kirkwood as motivation for the change, but he said that he plans to look into when other area schools have their spring breaks scheduled.

'Moving spring break always has unintended consequences,” Benson cautioned.

Monday's discussion was purely informational and board members took no action, though many voiced support of the potential calendar amendments. A concrete proposal is set to face the board at its next regular meeting, set for July 14, and members will likely vote on whether to approve the new calendar after a public hearing scheduled for the same evening.

In other board news, members heard a report on students' 2013-14 Iowa Assessments performance. Karla Ries, director of instructional services, presented results showing that 77 percent of schools increased or maintained reading proficiency rates while 54 percent did for math.