A bill preempting the authority of local school boards over publicly funded charter schools is going to Gov. Kim Reynolds’ desk for her signature. Reynolds named this sort of expansion of charter schools in Iowa as one of her top priorities in her Condition of the State speech at the beginning of this year’s legislative […]
Iowa schools
Posted inCommunity/News
Gov. Reynolds relaxes COVID-19 quarantine guidelines for schools
Iowa schools will no longer be required to follow the CDC’s COVID-19 quarantine guidelines, Gov. Kim Reynolds announced at her news conference on Tuesday. Previously, students and staff who were in close contact with someone who tested positive were supposed to self-quarantine for 14 days. Close contact is defined as being within six feet of […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Iowa schools won’t reopen for the rest of the school year
Iowa schools won’t reopen before the end of the school year, Gov. Reynolds announced on Friday. Reynolds first recommended the state’s K-12 schools close to help limit the spread of COVID-19 on March 15. “As we look at what the data is telling us now, I can’t tell you with certainty based on the Department […]
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Jane Elliott, the teacher behind the Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes exercise, is still fighting
Jane Elliott, 85, has spoken out against racism since April 5, 1968, the day after Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination in Memphis, Tennessee. Elliott worked as a third grade teacher in an all-white classroom in Riceville, Iowa. She had considered performing the experiment before, but decided she needed to enact it that Tuesday. She divided her class into two groups, treating them differently based on the color of their eyes — the birth of her famous Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes exercise.
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Rep. Mary Mascher introduces bill on seclusion and restraint in Iowa schools
State Rep. Mary Mascher, D-Iowa City, introduced a bill this week that would establish a task force to look at the use of “restrictive procedures, including seclusion” in public schools. Seclusion and restraint are currently allowed under Iowa law. There are 16 seclusion rooms in Iowa City schools (13 in elementary schools) and 11 in […]
