Four-day School Week

As school districts look at ways to save money without negatively impacting student achievement, many districts are looking at the four-day school week. Your school board has been discussing this option for several months and will continue to do so.

This is not a new concept. As a response to the energy crisis of the 1970's, districts in New Mexico began shifting to a four-day school week. There are 14 districts and two charter schools in Idaho on four-day weeks and many in Oregon, Colorado and other western states. Most schools that use the four-day week take either Friday or Monday off and lengthen the other four days.

How is it possible to do this? In Idaho, we are required to hold school for a certain number of instructional hours, not days. Thus it is not necessary to attend school 180 days. This allows us to organize our schedule differently. Right now our secondary students attend 1,068 hours of instruction while elementary students have 996 hours of instruction. This is exclusive of lunch, recess, etc. If a school had school 4 days per week for 36 weeks, students would be attending 144 days. This would require lengthening the school day to accommodate a similar number of hours of instruction in a year.

There would be no early release days. Teachers would be expected to work on two off days per month which would provide the opportunity for high quality professional development and collaboration. As much as feasible, away activities would be moved to Thursday nights, Fridays and Saturdays to preserve instructional and homework time. Students and staff would be encouraged to make medical appointments on the off day to minimize absences.

So how does a four-day school week save money? On the expense side of the ledger, there are reduced costs for classified salary and benefits, fewer bus miles are traveled to bring students to and from school, utility costs might be reduced and substitute expenses are generally reduced. On the revenue side, most school districts have seen an increase in student average daily attendance which is the most important factor in state funding. Staff absences are also generally reduced as well. It is difficult to predict the exact financial benefit to our district because the attendance improvement is an unknown factor, however, on the average, school districts save about 2% of the maintenance and operations expenses.

Are there benefits beyond financial? Yes, decreased drop out rates, fewer disciplinary referrals, stable student achievement, improved attendance, less interrupted class time, improved school morale, and higher quality staff development are reported by most schools that have switched.

What about the negatives? Usually parents are concerned about child care, however many parents indicate it is often easier to find full day day care than after school care. Also having four longer school days often eliminates the "latchkey" issue. Some have expressed concerns that it would impact student achievement, but most schools have actually increased their student achievement although there are too many variables involved to know for sure. Younger students might have a hard time adjusting to being in school for such a long day however districts that have gone to the four-day week report that even young students adapt after a few weeks.

Most school districts and their patrons that have transitioned to the four-day week indicate that they would never return to the traditional schedule. This includes the Orofino School District to our east, Challis School District in the south and Boundary County Schools up north. It may or may not be the best fit for Genesee, but it is part of the on-going discussion of how the District will respond to the current financial crunch while maintaining the highest quality education services possible for our clients.