Fejervary Family Aquatic Center (shown) Sunday August 11, 3pm, partly cloudy and 83°. Now this was a weekend and the same park’s picnic pavilions were busy, including plenty of school age children, but the pool was already closed for the season. Why so early?
Ostensibly because school resumes and the customer base (adults presumably don’t swim) are not available. The traditional work force is also not available. Apparently all of the “work force” attend out of the area schools and the City Fathers have never heard of recruitment from local high schools and colleges for at least week-end work . . . or adult lifeguards. Easier said than done? Perhaps, but our purpose is to raise a visual image staging some even more basic questions:
The whole pool issue we raise is secondary although emblematic. The school start time is the prime excuse driving the City Fathers pool decisions.
Why the hell do kids start school August 12? Its hot and air-conditioning costs go up for the schools, well presumptively, unless the school districts are cooling the entire building for the principal and a few support staff for the entire time the kids are away. The energy costs for the two or three dozen buildings have to exceed whatever energy costs surround a few pools being open. But there is more to our objection than that.
We support Governor Branstad’s effort to reign in middle of August (and earlier) starting times for schools. Some will insist that it should be a local decision, which we generally support. But this is an example of joint responsibility for the public purse. Much of the money for school district operations comes from state taxes. And school districts, and teacher’s unions, are always bellying up insisting on more.
The school districts say they move up start times for educational purposes and to allow ending the semester prior to Christmas winter vacation. Comparing educational achievements using “modern” scheduling to times when school years did not start until Labor day and went to roughly Memorial day, the reasoning seems to have proven of dubious utility. R Mall
What I think is weirder than the start dates are the end dates. Schools are ending in the last week of April these days. The freaking leaves aren’t even fully on the trees yet and it’s “Summer vacation!” The whole thing is just bizarre.