WELLMAN

A range of topics occupied the Mid-Prairie school board at their Jan. 27 work session; among those that would potentially most impact students and families are changes to the grades served at the elementary schools, the school calendar, and the district cellphone policy.

At present, students attend preschool and kindergarten at West Elementary in Wellman, first and second grade at East Elementary in Kalona, then head back to West Elementary for third and fourth grades. The district looks to unify like grades in each building starting with the 2026-2027 school year; East Elementary would become home to preschool, kindergarten, and first grade, and West Elementary would house second, third, and fourth grades.

“What we’re talking about doing simply makes sense,” superintendent Brian Stone said.

The board expects to set a public hearing on the matter at their next business meeting so as to receive community input before finalizing the change. The public hearing is likely to be held in late February.

School Calendar

Also under consideration is a change to the school calendar for the next academic year: early out days would move from frequent Wednesdays to every Friday, which would provide staff with 11 additional hours of professional development time. The time is needed to “work on ways that we can move the needle” – that is, improve the quality of education, especially reading instruction, preparation for life after graduation, and attendance.

Stone assured the board that 1:30 p.m. dismissal on Fridays “is by no means a step to a four-day week.”

Early-out Fridays would also reduce absences for students who have school activities, such as sports, on Friday nights that require travel time, and preschool would meet for four straight days rather than have a day off in the middle of the week, which would be beneficial, according to administrators.

Board members had questions about whether staff would actually put in the work on Friday afternoons rather than take off early for the weekend.

“The work that we’re looking to do with professional learning people are not going to want to miss,” Stone said. “There’s going to be accountability to the work that we have to do on those days so that we can move the needle.”

A draft of the proposed school calendar is likely to come before the board at their next business meeting.

Cellphone Policy

Whether or not to completely ban cellphones from school buildings during instructional hours has been under discussion by the school board in recent months as the idea has gained national traction following the publication of “The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness” by Jonathan Haidt.

At the Jan. 27 work session, the school board continued to be divided on the issue.

Board member Gabrielle Frederick mentioned the book.

“He talks about the four major harms of cellphones and social media. He talks about social deprivation, sleep deprivation, attention fragmentation – so it just kills executive functioning – and then addiction,” she said. “Cellphones have a large cost when we’re talking about what it does to the kids, their confidence, how it makes other people feel, the anxiety.”

For some board members, that’s convincing evidence, and phones should have no place in the school. They should be checked into lockboxes at the door, and there should be consequences if students are caught with phones inside the buildings.

Others worry about the burden that puts on staff to track cellphones coming in and going out, and what would happen during emergency situations.

The administrators present weighed in on the issue as well.

“The message that we send has to be clear that cell phones are not bad. They’re going to use them their whole life,” Middle School principal Tim Bartels said. “What we’re up against is not the phone, it’s social media.”

The Home School Education Center doesn’t allow phones as of this school year, but they don’t lock up phones; they simply expect students to comply with the policy and staff to enforce it.

“When we see a phone, that’s it,” director Rachel Kerns said. “We see a phone, we take a phone.” The key is “consistent adult leadership,” she says; having the phones locked up “would not help us.”

Board vice president Ryan Schlabaugh pointed out state government may make the decision for the board; Gov. Reynolds announced Jan. 24 she has introduced legislation to restrict cellphone use during instructional time in Iowa K-12 schools. However, until that happens, he suggested the district seek community input on the policy so that they know where folks stand.

“My perspective is, I just want something that’s well thought out. If we have the time, let’s take the time,” he said.

The board agreed to create and distribute a survey, the results of which they would consider at a future work session.

The Mid-Prairie school board will next meet for a business meeting on Monday, Feb. 10 at 6:15 p.m. in the Central Office Community Room.