My Substack “sports grab bag” a month ago started with the re-emergence of the “Iowa High School Sports History” website and also mentioned a good bill in the Legislature (mandating acceptance of cash for event admissions) and a very bad bill in the Legislature (mandatory “dead weeks” between sports seasons).
This Monday, that last one got worse.
Rep. Skyler Wheeler of Hull took his “noncontact period” bill, which has been renumbered HF 2508, and is throwing in two more calendar changes.
First, the amendment mandates that all school districts implement a spring break week after the state boys’ basketball tournament, i.e. the third week of March/week following the second Friday of March. As I wrote in the Substack post, many schools don’t set a spring break like this, and right now, it’s their choice to have a whole week off or Good Friday and the Monday after Easter instead (or even none at all, since they can also be makeups for snow days).
It just so happens that Western Christian of Hull, one of three(!) private schools in the town, has the full March spring break with Good Friday thrown in elsewhere, whereas Boyden-Hull does not, and instead has its spring break on the Thursday through Monday around Easter.
Second, and this is relevant to my analysis of school bond issue votes in November, Wheeler’s amendment mandates that the state volleyball tournament not start until the day after Election Day.
Wheeler is, in effect, micromanaging not only the school academic calendar but the school activities calendar. Ironically, the amendment doesn’t touch the heretofore-only third rail of the calendar, the August start date. It still says August 23 and not, say, the Monday or Tuesday following the end of the Iowa State Fair.
As of blog post time, the bill is one of two dozen eligible for debate in the House. It would have to go to the Senate if approved.
