More schools count by hours

DES MOINES - Given the choice for the first time, the vast majority of Iowa school districts are now counting the school year in hours, not days.

Iowa schools formerly were required to complete 180 days of instruction each school year. This year, the state changed Iowa law to allow schools to base their calendar year on either 180 days or 1,080 hours, an average of six hours per day.

Given that option, 299 of Iowa's 338 school districts, or 88.5 percent, switched this year from days - to hours-based calendars.

Moving to an hours-based calendar allows districts some additional flexibility. If, for example, a school day ends early because of poor weather, those hours may be counted on an hours-based calendar.

On a days-based calendar, any school day that does not reach six hours is not counted.

Not all schools chose to switch. Thirty-nine chose to remain on a calendar counted in days.

But even some of those may change in the near future.

Superintendent Jane Lindaman said the Waterloo Community School District decided to remain on a days-based calendar until the district could gather more information on the effects of switching to an hours-based calendar. She said a task force has been established to gather information and make a recommendation, which she will take to the school board.

'We decided that we just wanted to do a more strategic, thoughtful investigation of what was right for us and what might be impacted by a change,” Lindaman said.

She said the task force includes parents, administrators, teachers and tourism industry representatives.

'I'm positive that when the recommendation comes to me, they will have really thought it through,” Lindaman said.

Hal Minear, assistant superintendent in the Mason City Community School District, said the district remained on a days-based calendar largely to allow time to work out potential snags with existing employee contracts. He said if those items can be negotiated, the district will entertain switching to an hours-based calendar.

'I would say that would be something we would like to move to,” Minear said. 'We're not opposed to it. We just want to make sure we have it done right.”

The Cedar Rapids Community School District had a fresh example in mind of why it wanted to switch to an hours-based calendar when it did so this summer. Because of canceled days during the particularly harsh winter of 2013-2014, Cedar Rapids schools did not release its students until June 12.

The Linn-Mar Community School District, on the other hand, was one of the few that chose to remain on a days-based calendar this year. Dirk Halupnik, the district's executive director of instructional services, told The Gazette this summer that the decision boiled down to not wanting to lose instruction time.

'At the elementary level, we have 1,131 hours, which is well above the 1,080. So if we had a few snow days - and you can insert whatever number you want - technically by the law we cannot make up those days at all and still be above the minimum of 1,080,” Halupnik said.

'In the end, the students would be the ones who suffer because they would not get that instructional time. If we didn't have school that day in the days model, we would still have to make up those days and protect that instructional time.”

With Iowa giving schools the option between days or hours, only 15 states remain that do not allow districts to use an hours-based calendar, according to the Denver-based Education Commission of the States.