GOWRIE — Students in the Southeast Valley School District may be going to school 10 extra minutes each day of the 2025-2026 school year.

By Iowa law, school calendars are based on 180 days or 1,080 hours of instructional time with Aug. 23 being the first day that schools are allowed to start.

However, while Southeast Valley School Superintendent Brian Johnson was working through draft calendars and receiving input from staff, he had an idea that would meet the state’s requirements, be advantageous for student learning, and allow students and staff to end the year before Memorial Day.

“How are the districts going four days a week doing it?” asked Johnson. “They’re adding time to the day. Due to Southeast Valley’s large geographical area, adding that much time to a student’s day probably isn’t feasible as students have the potential to be on the school bus entirely too long of a time. But I thought, what if we added a few minutes to each day? I sat in front of a spreadsheet one Saturday and calculated several scenarios such as adding 10, 20, and 30 minutes to the student day. By adding 10 minutes to the student day, I soon realized we could lessen the number of student days needed by a handful and create a calendar similar to those of recent history.”

Johnson also suggested to the School Board that the district’s professional development strategy change as well. Since Johnson joined the district nine years ago, 2:30 p.m. early dismissals have been scheduled for every Wednesday. However with the incoming school year, Johnson has suggested that Wednesday’s become typical student learning days instead.

“The district was in a much different place with their educational curriculum then,” said Johnson. “I observed different buildings having different goals, different expectations, etc, which is not usually productive for student achievement. At that time, I felt it was important to get everyone and every building on the same page. It takes lots of time – time for communication, for new learning, for just about everything. We now feel we are in a better place and will be changing our professional development strategy to more of a differentiated approach.”

With the strategic change, professional development days will be scattered throughout the year and placed at the end of the first and second trimester, as well as one day per month after the first of the year.

“These days were strategically placed before or after a weekend or holiday,” said Johnson. “For students, it will give them some longer breaks to recharge in the spring, as well as allow for families to take a longer weekend without kids missing school.”

According to Johnson, where the added 10 minutes is placed each day is still being explored with the high school potentially having a different starting and ending time than the district’s other school buildings.