“It’s a very exciting day. Kids are always excited."
Alejandro Bravo's six-year-old daughter goes to Loess Hills Computer Programming Elementary School in Sioux City.
“Your kid is learning new things every day. You know, they come home a little bit sharper every day. It's just exciting to just hear their stories,” Bravo said.
Natalia shared her goals for this year.
“Learning things and playing together,” Natalia said.
Greeting Natalia and other students on a morning with temperatures already in the mid-80s, Superintendent Rod Earleywine.
“Good morning! How are you today?”
“It's an awesome day, it's great to be here to see how excited the students are, of course, a few of the younger ones are a little apprehensive, some of the kindergarteners their first day of school, but we have great people here that are ready to support and nurture them. And it'll be a great day," said Earleywine.
Earleywine said the weather no longer makes him sweat as an administrator.
“It's very hot. And we're going to have a couple more hot days. But thank goodness, now all our buildings are air-conditioned. So that's a relief. We'll just have to be careful about allowing students outside on these hot days.”
The Sioux City Community School District keeps kids in class thanks to a penny sales tax first approved by voters in Woodbury County in 1998.
“Literally millions and millions of dollars. I believe the Sioux City school district gets between $12 and $13 million a year. And Sioux City started many, many years ago in committing those dollars to building new buildings. Hunt Elementary School was finished last year. We'll look at what other opportunities we have for new buildings in the school district moving forward,” said Earleywine.
The local option sales tax was extended statewide in 2008. Iowa passed a law four years ago to keep the “Secure an Advanced Vision for Education” program until 2051. The governor estimated the program will provide an extra boost of $26 billion in revenue for school infrastructure projects.
Earleywine said he remembers the days when students just dealt with the heat.
“There was no air conditioning that I could tell you growing up in Little Sioux, Iowa. When I attended there, it was a K-through-six building. It was an old three-story building with no air conditioning. You put a box window box fan in the window, and you had school in there. I don't recall ever getting out early for hot days.”
