After months of debate, the Iowa Legislature agreed that school should be allowed to start a full week to 10 days earlier than spelled out in current law, which is what should have been done all along. An Aug. 23 date will ensure school starts after the Iowa State Fair with at least one Friday before Labor Day. Hopefully this will put a stop to calendar creep.
Until today, the law mandated a start day as late as Sept. 2 if Sept. 1 falls on Monday (“… no sooner than a day during the calendar week in which the first day of September falls,” and in that case the 1st would be Labor Day) or as early as Aug. 26 if and only if Sept. 1 is a Sunday.
On a related note, Google searches for “Governor/Gov. Gronstal” yielded fewer hits than I expected, although it did grab a Des Moines Register article from 2011. If you know why I searched for that, in relation to this issue or otherwise, congratulations, you’re a legislative wonk.