Unprecedented!

The roads may be fine in town, but out in the country they
were a different story the afternoon of February 13. This
the Grundy County line; western border of our district.

Remember a few weeks back when I told you how I didn't want to break a particular record? That was fun, right? Surely, we all thought the worst was behind us....didn't we? Unfortunately those musings are long in the rear view mirror. At the writing of this column, we have had eighteen days that have impacted our regular school day. Those days included late starts, early dismissals, and cancellations. Ten of those days were outright cancellations. The bad news at this point is that it is only the middle of February. The good news is, we have a plan!

This is the first time in my career I can recall a winter like this. While it is not necessarily uncommon during a winter to miss two days of school in a row, missing four days in a row is simply unheard of; at least in my experience. To say this is an unprecedented winter is certainly accurate. I would imagine when we experience a long hard winter in the future, this will be the new benchmark. 

Because of the unique and unprecedented situation we are experiencing, I have been forced to make decisions that I would not have otherwise made. Indeed, I keep thinking about all our activities that have gone weeks without practice while still being expected to compete. The next big date on the calendar is the spring musical, so I have had to relax the rules a bit to allow them the proper time to prepare for the performance. I continue to remind our coaches and directors these are exceptions to normal operating procedures and in no way meant to be precedent setting for future actions. For certain we value and honor family commitments and those days typically set aside where no school activities are scheduled. All our moderators have been asked to work closely with those under their charge and to be accommodating as possible. So far, that seems to be working and we appreciate your support. 

The million dollar question for all of you has to be when is school going to dismiss for the summer? Ah yes! Summer! Warm sunshine, green grass, blooming flowers. It all sounds so nice right now, doesn't it? To help come up with a solution, I asked our faculty and staff to weigh in and offer suggestions and ideas about how best we might end the school year. After soliciting and considering those opinions have come up with what I think is the most appropriate plan. Before we get to that, it is important to understand what exactly we are trying to make up. 

School districts in Iowa have the option of counting hours of instruction or days of instruction. That requirement is either 180 days of instruction, or 1,080 hours of instruction. In Hudson, we count hours of instruction because it gives us the most flexibility. At the same time, our faculty is contracted for days of work (not hours). Because of this, our calendar is counted in hours but built on a framework of days. I know its a bit confusing, but hang with me here. The good news is that the length of our day within that 180 day framework builds in a natural cushion of hours. The 2018-2019 school calendar had 1,128.8 hours of instruction scheduled, creating a cushion of 48.8 hours. This is the prime reason we usually never have to worry about making up late starts or early dismissals. Unfortunately we have blown completely through that cushion by a long way, and we are only in the middle of February! In fact, without making up any of the time missed we would only have 1,044.25 hours of instruction. So here is what we are going to do.

Scheduled Makeup Days.

The last day of school for the 2018-2019 school year will be May 31st. School will now be in session on March 15, April 19, and May 28-31. Also beginning March 27th we will forego the remainder of our Wednesday early dismissals, opting instead for a full day of school on those Wednesdays. This adjusted calendar will create a cushion that will enable us to maintain the May 31st last day of school. In other words, if we have another snow day between now and then, we will not plan to make it up unless the cushion is completely exhausted again. This plan will give us a cushion of 16.9 hours, so hopefully that will be sufficient. You should also note that under this plan, we will not be making up the days of school missed on January 23, 30, February 13, or 20. Teachers will report to work June 3-6 to make up the professional development that is being cancelled beginning March 27th and will check out on June 7th. This adjusted calendar will meet the instructional hours required by law and the number of work days in the teacher contract.

In closing, I want to share how much we appreciate your support and patience as we have dealt with what is no doubt an unprecedented year of weather related disruptions to our schedule. In appreciation of that support, I am going to end on a very light hearted note today. Many of you have asked for a singing weather cancellation, and while I haven't had the opportunity to oblige, I have something for you that is much better! Instead of encapsulating the joy of the occasional snow day, instead we lament the fact that it has been a long time since we have had a full week of school. Enjoy my son-in-law's rendition of Billy Joel's 'For the Longest Time'. Both Dan and my daughter Megan are music teachers at College Community, hence the references to that district. The super cute little ones in the video are three of my grandchildren. Enjoy!