School start date bill hits procedural roadblock in Senate

DES MOINES – Add a legislative decision on the date that schools will be allowed to begin fall classes to the list of education issues in limbo during the split-control General Assembly's 2015 session.

Iowa senators took up a House-passed bill on Wednesday that barred K-12 school districts from starting before Aug. 23 – a position that Gov. Terry Branstad supports. However, a coalition of 29 Democrats and Republicans turned back an effort to reject the changes that House members made to a Senate-passed bill, and they followed that with a 28-22 vote to approve the House-passed bill.

In response to that action, Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, contended that some GOP senators who were expected to challenge the House position did not follow through on the voting board, so he filed a procedural motion that will hold Senate File 227 in the Senate indefinitely rather that proceed to the governor for his consideration.

Gronstal said he took the action because the measure, as it currently stands, would not allow Iowa high schools to adopt year-round calendars and departs from the local-control position senators originally took when they passed the bill 32-17 on March 10 and sent it to the GOP-led House.

Wednesday's outcome saw seven Democrats and 21 GOP senators vote to approve the House-passed bill, while 19 Democrats and three Democrats opposed the bill. Gronstal was among those who voted for the bill so he could be on the prevailing side and therefore eligible to file his motion to reconsider.

'We think that's pretty crazy to not allow any high school to pursue year-round schools,” said Gronstal, who noted he was 'in no rush” to lift his motion in hopes that 'people will come to their senses” and find a more-workable approach to resolve differences over the school start date issue.

However, Senate GOP Leader Bill Dix of Shell Rock called Gronstal's move another example of Democratic 'stalling tactics” that are making it difficult for Iowa's school districts to plan for the next school year without knowing how the calendar dispute or an impasse over state aid to schools will be resolved by lawmakers this session. Republicans also noted there currently are no Iowa high schools that operate under a year-round calendar.

'We had a vote on local control and that was not something that the chamber viewed favorably,” Dix told reporters after Wednesday's Senate vote. 'This was a bill that clearly was moving in a direction that is more favorable than a Sept. 1 start date, so it makes sense to us.”

Dix said Gronstal should release the bill and send it to Branstad 'rather than stalling and kicking the ball down the road.”

'It ought to just go to the governor and be done,” the GOP Senate leader noted. 'We have seen the Democrats stall and delay with respect to K-12 education long enough. (School officials) deserve some certainty and to move forward with some policy so they can plan, and that's what we ought to be doing on school funding as well. So this is really our first step in trying to get schools the ability to plan and move forward with a start date. We ought to be doing the same thing with funding.”

The legislation at issue came about in response to new school starting date guidelines developed by the Iowa Department of Education in response to a directive from Branstad. The state agency guidelines parallel concerns raised by Branstad, who has sympathized with Iowa tourism officials who say they are losing millions of dollars annually because of early school starting dates that begin on sweltering days in August.

The guidelines could reduce the number of school districts that start early by requiring school officials to prove that students would be harmed academically if they don't start classes early. In the current school year, all but two of Iowa's 338 public K-12 school districts sought and were granted waivers from the current law and in the 2013-14 school year, only 10 Iowa school districts started later than Aug. 23.

l Comments: (515) 243-7220; rod.boshart@thegazette.com