2024-25 Cedar Rapids school calendar may forgo Friday early release for students

CEDAR RAPIDS — Students in the Cedar Rapids Community School District may no longer get out of school early on Fridays if a new school calendar is approved.

For nearly a decade, Cedar Rapids schools have shortened the academic day for students one day a week to make time for professional learning for staff, but the proposed school calendar for the 2024-25 school year would forgo half days.

Eriece Colbert, president of the Cedar Rapids Education Association, said in a presentation to the Cedar Rapids school board Monday that a calendar committee designed the calendar to maximize instructional time, promote the health and well-being of staff and provide staff adequate professional learning opportunities.

The average daily attendance for students across the district is 92 percent, the calendar committee shared. However, on Fridays when students are released from school early, the attendance rate is 90 percent. On those days, students’ schedules are condensed, impacting much-needed instructional time, said Truman Early Learning Center Principal Monica Frey, who was on the calendar committee.

Staff absenteeism rate also has increased while the substitute fill rate — the number of substitutes available to fill in during absences — has decreased, Frey said.

The proposed calendar sprinkles 15 professional learning days throughout the school year on either Mondays or Fridays, including four days before the first day of school in August and three days in January. Students would not have school on these days.

“Speaking from experience, I think it’s really important to show teachers in real and concrete ways you respect the work they need to do in their classrooms,” school board President Cindy Garlock said Monday.

The first day of school for students would be Aug. 23, 2024. The last day of school would be June 3, 2025. Winter break would be two weeks starting on Dec. 23, 2024, and resuming Jan. 6, 2025.

Thanksgiving break is Nov. 27-29, and spring break would be March 17-21, 2025.

About 15 extra hours are built into the proposed calendar to account for late starts and early outs due to inclement weather.

The calendar committee is comprised of three parents, four building administrators, four teachers and two district-level administrators.

The calendar committee also will begin exploring switching start and end times for elementary and secondary students and adding time to the daily schedule, possibly beginning by the 2025-26 school year, said Ryan Rydstrom, chief of staff for the Cedar Rapids Community School District.

Currently, elementary schools start at 8:50 a.m. and get out at 3:50 p.m., and middle and high schools start at 7:50 a.m. and get out at 2:50 p.m.

The school board will likely vote on the calendar in January.

CRCSD Calendar 2024-2025 by The Gazette on Scribd

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