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| Ok here goes, we went to 4-day week more than 12 years ago. I was on school board at the time, we had town meetings before hand. The problem was the most vocal at the meetings were the ones for it. Really only less than 50 people standing up for it. Lots of people against it but would never voice opinion in public. This was a community of around only 1,000 kids in district, however under 10% of those kids rode more than 30 miles one way to school. We have a elementary school K-3 for 50% of that 10% of kids that lived so that those kids were on bus that long and that far. The older kids had to be bused into town.
So, I was opposed to it, on simple facts the superintendent was just trying to appease a few teachers that were in teachers' union squawking about more pay raises every year. He couldn't raise wages, so he gave more time off on those bitching about it. There were enough fluff hours already built into schedule that they able to cover for the fifth day being taken out, that's what made me the maddest. Why did we have all those fluff hours to begin with? The big selling point was this would allow parents time to take kids to doctor appointments on Friday, etc. Ok great but doctor's want time off too. What days do they pick off, you got it Fridays. I brought up where both parents work, they would have childcare to pay for on Fridays. Well other board members said oh no, the older kids can watch the younger ones.
Nope won't work that way because district was going to have all extracurricular events on Friday. So those kids still have to watched. Unless all the schools in your district are on it and you can schedule all sporting events on the same days, there is no savings because your district is still going to them on Saturdays and mid-week still. So bottom line the kids living longs away were getting on the bus at 6:05 a.m. my kids. Not returning until after 5 p.m. on bus. This started for them in 4th grade. When kid in household could drive, they took siblings to school and could leave at 7 a.m. They had to do that if involved in extracurricular activities. County had a curfew on young kids at night, my kids were in violation coming home from regular sports practices every night because we lived away from town.
Hard facts about budget were superintendent was trying to save 100 thousand out of a 4.5-million-dollar budget. Only real cost projections for savings were bussing, and classified employees' wages. We were cutting cooks and bus drivers wages. Schools still needed cleaned because they still got dirty with extracurricular activities on Fridays and Saturdays, because we still had them. Now mind you 85% of the bus miles in the "yellow buses" got reimbursed by the state. Only bus miles not paid for was the big travel buses we had to have for extracurricular activities. Almost all districts in Idaho have a travel buses. Also, you're still having to heat buildings can't turn heat down, so no savings in heating bills.
So, getting back to actual savings, I asked board to track all expenses the first year. Well conveniently was told by Superintendent we couldn't track that because fuel went up. I asked we have computers in school system, yet we can't track costs. I was told after the meeting by district secretary, she had figures and we only saved around 60 thousand the first year of the projected budget. My argument from the beginning was we could have cut the budget by that amount in the beginning. The 100 thousand overage was in extracurricular activities. I still maintain parents need to kick in that amount more for their kids to be involved in in those programs. We had work programs in the summer to allow kids to earn money to pay for their parts for extracurricular activities. Bottom line was most parents don't feel they should make kids work at all. No kid would have been left out; they could have been funded.
Bottom line it cost more for other parents to pay for childcare on Fridays, and also the loss of classified employees wages. Also want to note that that the projected savings is only big the first year, then goes down. No more savings over the years, was it necessary to stir everyone's lives up over 60 thousand dollars? At the time for school district about the same size 1,000 kids it was same projections of savings. I polled schools in Utah and Idaho over it. A lot of Utah schools went away from it after trying it. One reason was they had to open schools up on Fridays to give help for kids falling behind. They had teachers going into tutor kids to bring them up to speed. However, that created more problems as teachers were fraudulent in reporting their timecards by padding hours. One district quit it because of this.
Bottom line is no real savings in money, it's just to give more parents a fit for their own 4-day work week. Gives a lot of families 3 days to play. Downside is now we have ingrained in a young generation you only have to work a 4-day week. Well sorry to tell you all service industry's still need employees on weekends, 24/7 hours. Talk to any employers. Take a hard look at other countries, Japan for one last time I looked their kids went to school 6 days a week, yet we are dumbing down our kids. I am pushing close to 60 years old; I look at the info I had to learn in my lifetime. Now look at a young kid today, they need to learn more than I did. Can that be done in a 4-day week? History seems to repeat itself if we don't learn it, why don't we teach it? Let's not teach cursive writing, only keyboarding. Let's not teach about interests' rates and what it does to the profitability to your business or household.
So, my kids came though it ok, my kids were offered sport scholarships but turned them down because was easier to work on farm and ranch in summers. Go to college and not have to have a job during the college time. Only on weekends to help at home as they lived 60 miles away. They got to enjoy their college experience. It ingrained in them you get your butt up in mornings and get your work done so you can play if you want.
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4 Day School Week
