(Radio Iowa) - Iowa law allows schools to start on August 23rd this year -- but the fall semester will begin September 5th in the Rock Valley school district as the community recovers from severe flash flooding that hit in June.
Rock Valley Superintendent Mike Van Voorst says district officials hope returning to classes can bring some normalcy to students' lives. School rooms aren't ready, though, so the district's youngest students will begin the school year in a Rock Valley church and third, fourth and fifth graders will start school in cleaned, sanitized but unfinished classrooms.
The State of Iowa is constructing six temporary classrooms that will be used by students in sixth through 12th grades and those older students will rotate back and forth to unfinished spaces in the school building where reconstruction is underway.