Actions of the recently-ended Iowa Legislature will have some effect on public school districts throughout the state, including Marshalltown Community School District (MCSD).

Senate File 167 was signed by Gov. Kim Reynolds on May 14, and provides a 2 percent increase in funding per pupil. Superintendent Theron Schutte said while the increase is more than the norm in the past decade, it is still insufficient to keep pace with cost of living.

“Long term that becomes problematic and it’s because of that pattern of lack of financial support that we run into situations like we did last year where we have to do an abrupt right-size of salaries with beginning teachers and . . . veteran teachers,” he said. “We are thankful, but that wouldn’t have to be done if they gave annual increases that kept us competitive.”

Fortunately the increase will not have the impact on MCSD as on smaller districts which might be facing staff layoffs. For example, after the legislature determined the per pupil funding, the Cedar Rapids Community School District announced the layoff of 27 central office employees due to falling enrollment and budget shortcomings.

Schutte said MCSD is still in good financial position as a district. Any decisions to not renew contracts would not be related to the budget, he said, but rather need.

“But I can absolutely see for districts which are losing enrollment and then getting these low annual increases where they are finding themselves in positions of not filling vacated positions or maybe having to pinkslip positions,” Schutte said.

The delay in having per pupil funding determined creates a hardship for districts in sustaining budgets. Schutte said necessary decisions used to be made a year in advance. If districts do not know what the increase is, but the state requires the budget process to begin, he said they are forced to protect themselves by not filling positions. Schutte said some districts have also had to consolidate buildings to accommodate declining enrollment numbers.

“As long as this pattern continues, there will continue to be those issues,” he said. “I don’t know the current percentage, but on any given year, 60 to 70 percent of the districts are losing enrollment versus gaining. If your budget is largely predicated on the number of kids and the annual increases are low, it’s a bad recipe for financial stability.”

Cellphones, year-round school

Another bill signed by Reynolds on April 30 is House File 782, which restricts cellphones in classrooms. Schutte said many people have called it a ban, but he would not categorize it as such. Marshalltown already did not allow cellphones in classrooms, but let the kids have the devices in the hallways and lunchrooms. That is something he said they might look at again.

“We do on occasion have kids who don’t meet those expectations and they want to argue when the teachers or administrators address it,” Schutte said. “Sometimes the parents want to address it, and this will at least give us the leverage of the law to enforce it.”

One piece of legislation Schutte found particularly interesting was House File 392, which gives districts the option to establish a year-round school calendar. He said no one expected such action. When Schutte came to MCSD nine years ago, the district had finished a study with community stakeholders and had presented the findings at his first or second school board meeting. The topic has not been revisited.

“At that time, they felt MCSD should go to more of a balanced calendar, or what people call year-round school,” he said. “It would be a similar number of days, they’re just spread out through the year, as long as all buildings are able to do that. The problem was the law at the time was high schools couldn’t do it, largely because they wanted kids to be available to work in the summer.”

For example, the two-week winter break would be stretched to three and the one-week spring break would be stretched to two to allow for a year-long calendar.

Schutte is not sure what the impetus was for the state to revisit the matter, but it does open the door for districts to consider a different calendar that would better align with what kids need. He said school districts with a higher percentage of low-income students would benefit if the summer break, a span of time he said is also called the “summer slide,” is shortened.

“Especially for students of poverty, if there’s a long break a lot of what they learned gets lost and then has to be retaught in the fall before they’re ready for new learning,” Schutte said.

There have been studies which show students who have a shorter summer break outperform those with the traditional break, he said. Year-round students outperform the ones with summers off.

“It is unquestionable it makes a positive difference,” Schutte said. “It’s just so different from the way things have happened forever in Iowa schools. You used to protect the summer because kids would help farm.”

Schutte added that another benefit would be the ability to align the high school calendar with that of Marshalltown Community College. The superintendent is not sure how the staff or community would feel about year-round school, as there might be problems during the summer when teachers take additional education courses.

“It is something that is worth taking a look at, because I do believe it would increase the potential for student achievement, particularly in the younger grades,” Schutte said.

Other legislation

Schutte said some other legislation which would impact MCSD is the flexibility given to districts on determining whether or not students need to move forward in the process of chronic absenteeism. He said there are legitimate reasons kids miss school who do everything to keep their grades up. If a student is performing well academically, a certified letter would not have to be sent to parents, and the county attorney would not have to be contacted. Schutte is grateful to have a little bit more latitude in sending the letters, which is also costly, he said.

Schutte was not happy with the actions the legislature has taken against DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) in education. The reasons the legislation, House File 856, was passed are extremist, and do not apply to 99 percent of the schools, he said.

“The fact we’re in a position now where we’re not supposed to use the word ‘diversity’ or ‘equity,’ which is absolutely essential in public schools, or use the word ‘inclusion’ which has been the biggest charge in my 40-year career in terms of inclusion of special needs kids,” Schutte said. “It’s preposterous in my opinion. However, we will comply with the law and figure out the way to do the right work for all of our kids.”

Fortunately, there are no MCSD positions or groups which need to be eliminated as a result.

Contact Lana Bradstream at 641-753-6611 ext. 210 or lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.