Newton unlikely to make changes to school calendar until after winter

School was cancelled five times in January, but administrators of the Newton school district say there should be enough hours to absorb those missed days and the two, two-hour delays. Current rules for the calendar would have students make up those days until June 3, but if hours are met that could change.

Superintendent Tom Messinger isn’t worried about that though. The district has enough built-in hours to absorb the delays, and there are even extra hours that can be utilized. If extra days are tacked on, students would have to return for the last day of school on a Monday. But even that’s not the issue.

If the Newton school board wanted to make changes to the calendar, instructions from the Iowa Association of School Boards say every change is supposed to have a public hearing. Messinger said most schools he has talked to have never had to do that before. He suggested the district wait to avoid multiple hearings.

“I want to wait until we’re a little bit more set on exactly what our calendar would look like knowing that’s a requirement that went out,” Messinger said. “If IASB posted that as one of their bulletins that went out, there obviously must be other areas as well that were concerned about that but didn’t know.”

Messinger said he has been asked if the district could use President’s Day as a snow make-up day. It was decided at the time the 2023-24 calendar was created that it could not happen, much like the clause that says two or more inclement weather days would be made up at the end of the school year.

“We intend to continue following this calendar once we know or feel like we’re in the clear for weather days, and then we’ll come back and make adjustments.”

The last day of school was originally scheduled for May 24.