Due to the cold weather, Algona High School, followed by many surrounding schools, have had a handful of hours off.
In Iowa, all public school students are required to attend 1080 hours of school. The Algona School system has extra hours put in place in the school calendar in case of inclement weather. Once these hours have been used, any time off must be made up.
The weather last school year, 2022-2023, was immensely different from this year. Last school year, the banked hours were used up quite quickly, including in the month of December. Once a month, the Algona Community School District holds a staff development day. If needed, like last year, school took place on those days to eliminate going further into summer.
The Algona Community School District, up to this time this year, has not used up all those extra “banked” hours.
There have been mixed feelings between students of Algona High School regarding the less severe weather. Karlie Countryman states, “If we could get out earlier with less snow days, that's what I'm most happy about. But I also think it's better because I get to see my peers more as well.”