Four Day School Week

[snarlingcoyote]

There is a town close to my home town that has had 4 day school weeks for about 20 years and people there would fight you if anyone ever tried to force them to go back to a 5 day week.

When they switched, absenteeism for students and teachers dropped dramatically, as appointments can all be made on Friday. Because class periods were extended, teachers have been able to really get creative and get kids to think and work and get mastery of subjects before moving on to the next class. Test scores shot up when they made the switch and have stayed high.

As for day care, the churches got together and offer a day long "activity" day on Fridays for a nominal fee (about what it costs them to feed the kids lunch, and even that is waived if the parents can't afford it). The kids play in the church gym or hang out and watch TV or play games or do art activities.

It works extremely well for this little town.

ETA: It also saves them a TON of money. They only have run the buses 4 days a week, only have to heat and cool the school 4 days a week etc.

 

[golfgal]

There are a couple districts in our state that have done this for 2 years now. It mainly saves money in busing but also helps with utilities, etc. Several districts here have either a late start once/month or an early release once/ month so they don't lose time for inservice days at all so their entire school calendar is shortened, also saving money-busing, support staff, etc. Our old district had a late start once/month and it was GREAT-especially for scheduling dr appts, dentist appt's, etc.

The schools that do the 4 day week have longer days on those 4 days to make up for the time lost--they actually count in "hours" vs "days" but most people just say "days".

 

[Pigeon]

As a parent, it would be a nightmare. And it would greatly increase my childcare costs. In general, I think kids are tired at the end of a school day and I don't see this as having a positive impact on learning.

 

[MrsPete]

Just remembered this and wanted to add it in ... the kids never get a day off for teacher in-service/conferences/meetings because teachers do all of those things on Mondays since the kids are off anyway!

Teacher hours would have to adapt to match kids' hours: Teachers would start working 10 hour days x 4 . . . which means they wouldn't be working on Mondays.

That's where I think our high school may be the odd one out. DS, in high school, earns 1 credit for Algebra class. The class is 50 minutes long and is for 60 days. (We have trimesters.) Compare that to his English class. It's 2 periods long, 100 minutes, 60 days and he still earns just the 1 credit.

3000 hours in Algebra = a credit
6000 hours in English = a credit

I've questioned the discrepancy and I've never gotten a clear answer except for that's the way it's done here (his high school).

Anyhow, sorry I hijacked the OPs post.

That doesn't seem right.

It mainly saves money in busing but also helps with utilities, etc.

I'm sure that busses represent the biggest savings . . . but don't discount those utilities! My school is five acres heated space -- just cutting back the heat for a three-day period every weekend would save a fortune!

And it would greatly increase my childcare costs.

I don't love the idea, but it wouldn't increase your childcare costs. You'd STOP paying after school care, but you'd START paying Monday care (or Friday care, depending upon your school's choices). It'd even out. After-school care was outrageously expensive for me! One whole day might actually cost less.

 

[wtpntigger2]

I think it's a great idea (and I'm a teacher). It always feels as though there is never enough time in the day to get in all the things I want to teach every day.

As for a 10 hour school day, I'm not sure how you're figuring that out. Here a school day is 6.5 hrs. Taking one day off would only add just over an hour to each day (as you could take out the 50 min for lunch/recess). I know some schools go for 7 or 7.5 hrs, but that still wouldn't get you to 10 hrs.

 

[mum4jenn]

I HATE the idea and our Superintendant does too here in SW GA. Many suppot folks are paid by the hour and would take a huge hit in their pay which is already very very low. This would be a 36 day cut in pay for some.

 

[Pigeon]

I don't love the idea, but it wouldn't increase your childcare costs. You'd STOP paying after school care, but you'd START paying Monday care (or Friday care, depending upon your school's choices). It'd even out. After-school care was outrageously expensive for me! One whole day might actually cost less.

No, it would greatly increase my childcare costs, should I even be able to find quality childcare. Maybe it wouldn't for you.

 

[diznygirl]

But if the schools would be open on the fifth day to provide childcare, how does that help? Except that it would charge parents for that day?

I know longer days would be hard on my children - like another poster mentioned, kids are only good for so long, then they need a break.

I suppose longer days would also mean no after school activities or homework.

It's a knee-jerk reaction to a financial problem that does more harm than good in my eyes.

 

[MidgeD79]

My school did a 4-day week for the 2010-2011 school year. I am a bus driver and my hours were reduced by 20% so I am no longer eligible for fully paid insurance. I have to pay 30% towards on top of reduced wages. We also have to make up 9.5 snow days so Fridays were added and the school year extended from 6/15 to 6/20. We were paid on the snow days so we won't get paid for any of the make-up days. I understand the " we were alrady paid" thing, but the snow days were random and I have to work an extra week with no income to pay for gas/daycare.

 

[golfgal]

As a parent, it would be a nightmare. And it would greatly increase my childcare costs. In general, I think kids are tired at the end of a school day and I don't see this as having a positive impact on learning.

No, it would greatly increase my childcare costs, should I even be able to find quality childcare. Maybe it wouldn't for you.

The districts around here that do this have had various organizations in the community step up to help with these things. Since most school aged kids aren't really "in" daycare except before/after school many churches, etc. have started programs for the day the kids are out of school. Same thing happened in our old town when they started the late start program. People have found that they have not had increased costs because of this. Other people have reported through various news articles that their places of employment have also worked around this new school schedule and they work 4-10 hour days.

 

[mhsjax]

I think it is a terrible idea. Little kids aren't going to tolerate being at school for 10 hours a day, and this seems to be the way that it is handled. ALso, what about a life after school, with homework there would almost no time for other activities.

Sorry but I think there has to be another way to save money. Good thing where I live in Florida, this hasn't come up . Well I think it did about 2 years ago, but was very quickly shot down.

 

[torinsmom]

I like the idea. Our school day is 6.5 hours now, and would be a little over 8 hours a day if we did 4 days. 8:00-4:10 sounds good to me. I really don't know what they'd do about teacher workdays/inservice days, because teachers are contracted for a certain amount of days. With this schedule, the number of days would change, because we would be working more hours per day. Having us do inservice on a Monday would be like having them do inservice on Saturday now.

I HATE the idea and our Superintendant does too here in SW GA. Many suppot folks are paid by the hour and would take a huge hit in their pay which is already very very low. This would be a 36 day cut in pay for some.

Not really. They would be working more hours on the four days, just like teachers. Instead of working their hours over 5 days, they would do it over four. And actually, some may be able to get a job on that fifth day, which would create more income for them.

Parents who pay for before and after school would save on at least one, I would think. They can use that money to pay for that extra day.

 

[daisyduck123]

I think it is a terrible idea. Little kids aren't going to tolerate being at school for 10 hours a day, and this seems to be the way that it is handled. ALso, what about a life after school, with homework there would almost no time for other activities.

Just to add, as a previous poster brought up...the school day would not be 10 hours. Not sure where people are getting that from. In the county I teach in, with about 80 elementary schools, our school day is 6 hours & 40 minutes long. If we were to add the 5th day, that would add another 75 minutes a day...making the school day 7 hours and 55 minutes long...

so about an 8 hour school day.

 

[golfgal]

I think it is a terrible idea. Little kids aren't going to tolerate being at school for 10 hours a day, and this seems to be the way that it is handled. ALso, what about a life after school, with homework there would almost no time for other activities.

Sorry but I think there has to be another way to save money. Good thing where I live in Florida, this hasn't come up . Well I think it did about 2 years ago, but was very quickly shot down.

Where do you get "10 hours"? Say kids normally go to school from 8-3. They are there for 7 hours. Of that 7 hours, say 1 hour of that is lunch/recess (for the younger kids) and lunch-hall passing time for the older kids, so 6 hours of instruction time. Add that 6 hours on to those 4 days and that is 1.5 hours more each day, so 8 1/2 hours/day "in school". That is pretty much the typical work day for someone with a 1/2 hour lunch. I would bet after the first week of school most kids won't even notice the extra time--kids adapt to things pretty quickly.

 

[Acklander]

On one hand I'd love to have a bunch of 3 day weekends. BUT between classwork, with an extra hour and a half, the extras after school, and then homework - how are kids going to get it all done????

 

[paintnolish]

Dh and I are both teachers, so it would work out well for us. One less day we'd all have to get up early!

 

[ilovemk76]

I am all for this. I would extend the school day to cover the extra hours. The teacher can use Friday to grade papers and tests. The only homework given should be on Thursday and the kids can work on it for 3 days.

 

[Acklander]

I am all for this. I would extend the school day to cover the extra hours. The teacher can use Friday to grade papers and tests. The only homework given should be on Thursday and the kids can work on it for 3 days.

If the teachers are working on those days, it doesn't reduce the costs, does it??? I see teachers responding to this post from THEIR perspective, and parents responding from THEIR perspective. Does anyone have any information on how this works out for the kids, and the amount they're able to learn? Some how I think our kids are going to be short changed.

 

[torinsmom]

I am all for this. I would extend the school day to cover the extra hours. The teacher can use Friday to grade papers and tests. The only homework given should be on Thursday and the kids can work on it for 3 days.

I would not expect to work on the off day, as we would be working extra long hours the other 4 days. It's not like we would get a salary increase, and in the poor states considering this, teachers don't have a great salary as is. Of course, we do work at home now, so that would be up to the teacher. Otherwise, planning time would still be built in to get a little of it done. There would still need to be teacher workdays as well, as that is the time we do required inservice, which is part of the days we are contracted to work.

 

[torinsmom]

If the teachers are working on those days, it doesn't reduce the costs, does it??? I see teachers responding to this post from THEIR perspective, and parents responding from THEIR perspective. Does anyone have any information on how this works out for the kids, and the amount they're able to learn? Some how I think our kids are going to be short changed.

I do think the kids could learn the same amount in 4 days. Most kids would adjust to the 1 hour increase pretty easily. You could add 20 minutes or so to each period for the older kids. With my kids(preK/K), I would have 30 minutes more in our individual work time in the morning and 30 minutes extra in the afternoon. I may also go to putting the preK's down for a rest time(as this WOULD be a long day for them) and working on more complex topics with the K's during that time.