School begins Friday in the CAL School District.
Superintendent Todd Lettow tells Radio on the Go News that they have the staff members in place for the 2024-25 school year.
“You know, we had some key retirements last year, you know, kind of concerned about because in a small school, they had been around for a long time. We were a little bit worried about replacing them. So we hired early and then had them kind of mentor with that outgoing retiree. And that seemed to work pretty well. You know, I guess we’re lucky. There are a lot of schools that are having to scramble just because they can’t find, you know, everybody to fill their positions.”
A new law is on the books in Iowa addressing absenteeism. In fact, if the absence rate reaches 20 percent, legal consequences and actions by the county attorney would take place. Those options include fines and jail time for the parents.
“Continuing to develop those relationships before attendance becomes a problem. You know, it could be something as simple as sitting down with the parents and saying, hey, we’re missing your son or daughter. How can we help? What can we do? There have been times in life situations where car breaks down or, hey, we’re having a divorce in the family or somebody’s sick. We want to be mindful of that and say, well, how can we help out? You know, we still want your son or daughter to be at school.”
Lettow says early indications are that enrollment will be down this fall in the CAL School District.
