The Iowa City School District is dismissing their students on June 11th, when in a normal covid free year, students would get out at the end of May. This means there are two extra weeks of learning when our school district has already completed the required hours. This school year has been chaotic and rough on the students and teachers with transitioning from online, to hybrid and then attending full in person. It's been an incredibly stressful year for all, and now after the mask mandate was lifted, there's a higher risk of contracting the COVID-19 virus at school. In a normal school year, we average about 5 built-in snow days. This year, our snow days were done remotely, meaning we have 5 built-in days that are not required to attend or are a part of our essential school hours. All these factors would add up to a non-beneficial extra 2 weeks. In the spirit of mental health month, as a community, we have the power to give the students a somewhat normal summer and begin next year on a normal calendar. Everyone can agree we have all had enough of the zoom meetings, connection issues, and cancelled activities. By signing this petition you can help persuade the school district to cut the school year down by one week. Please have your parents email the school board to ensure that this petition gets noticed!