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NE MT | I second everything Cole said. I was board chair when our district decided fo switch to "modified week". Oommunity support was about 75%, but those opposed were very opposed and fought hard against. We voted for a 1 year trial period and after that was very little opposition. We kept students and teacher total hours the same as 5 day week, made for 45 min longer days. Classified employees kept same hours and really like having the school all to themselves 1 day a week for a thorough cleaning. Recruiting and retention is much easier, so much so that neighboring class A school has decided it needs to switch as has trouble hiring if a 4 day district has same opening. Will not save any money, costs r same. We have an afterschool program we offered all day friday to help ease childcare concerns, closed that after first year as was not utilized. I had kids ranging from k-8 at the time and longer day wasnt an issue, and for my 1 kid who hated school really changed his attitude, 4 days was much easier for him. It's not for every community but is getting more acceptable as opposition theories are debunked. Also GPA was watched and as a school never changed, teachers actually reported gettiing farther thru their curriculum than previous years due to longer class lengths. Absences didn't drop as much as had hoped due to difficulty getting all appointments on a friday, such as a local dentist isnt open on fridays. As a parent of 7 kids that will, or have already gone thru it, I have no regrets our district switched | |
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Comments needed on 4 day school weeks
