CC schools will not make up missed flood days, School Board hears

Board thanks students, Independence schools for volunteer efforts

By Kate Hayden | khayden@charlescitypress.com

Charles City Community School District students will not make up two days of school missed during flooding last week, Superintendent Dr. Dan Cox told the Board of Education during Monday’s meeting.

The school calendar approved last spring said the first three snow days will be made up, Dr. Cox said, but didn’t anticipate closing school last Thursday and Friday due to flooding. Those missing days will not be made up, he said. Teachers will make up the contract days on June 1 and 2.

“Obviously we just anticipated missing school for snow, not for anything else,” Dr. Cox said.

Board members expressed gratitude to students and district staff who pitched in during volunteer efforts over the weekend, helping businesses and members of the Board itself.

“It was nice to see on all of the social media outlets that we follow, how many students were around town assisting,” President Scott Dight said. “I even did one tweet showing my pickup and that I was ready to protect my building, and within 10 minutes I had 12 cross country members there all ready to pitch in and help protect my office … ‘Now we’ll move on to recovery efforts in the town and the country.'”

“Students and staff should be commended for their efforts sandbagging, they were a big blessing to our community,” Dr. Cox said.

Dr. Cox also thanked Independence Community School District for its donations of bottled water and cleaning supplies at the Charles City/Independence football game on Friday night.

Athletic complex search

Working with the Board of Education, agent Dean Stewart of Stewart Realty has identified a few properties that could serve to relocate the baseball and softball complexes from Sportsmen’s Park.

“One of the properties that has been identified is much larger than the 10 to 12 acres that the board had requested,” Dr. Cox told the board. “He’s working with that potential seller on either purchasing the 10-12, or if it will be the larger number, we’ll have to have a use for that.”

Another property is closer to the board’s preferred size, and Stewart has identified two other potential locations that have not yet set a price point. It would take another couple of weeks to reach that point, Dr. Cox said.

“We’re not at a point yet where it’s time to have a closed session to talk about a specific piece of land we’d recommend you consider for an athletic complex,” Dr. Cox said.

Other business

There will be no school during parent/teacher conferences on Oct. 10. Parents can register for a conference time between 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. online at www.charlescityschools.org.

The next Board of Education meeting is Oct. 10 in the Charles City Middle School.

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