Woodson ISD proposes 4-day school week

Woodson ISD introduced a pilot program to its residents Monday, Feb. 11, which proposes the district move to a fourday week in lieu of the five-day week currently in place. Superintendent Casey Adams was on hand to explain the pros and cons to attendees.

Adams said four-day weeks are not a foreign concept to him, as he grew up in Colorado, where four-day school weeks have become commonplace. As of July 2018, 58 percent of Colorado’s 178 school districts have switched to a four-day week, according to the Colorado Department of Education.

Though, the reasons differ. While several districts in Colorado switched to save money, Adams said he is advocating Woodson switch so they can increase their chance at hiring teachers looking for work, or families looking for better schooling options. Adams said the concept stemmed from trying to figure out how they could attract qualified teachers without spending more money. In his presentation given Monday, he said districts he talked to reported their applicant pool for positions went from two or three, to around a dozen.

“At Woodson we’re so remote and we don’t pay that well,” Adams said. “We don’t have great housing and we don’t offer a lot of what other schools do.”

The program

Adams said they will try to do it similar to how Athens, Texas is wanting to do it, which he called a “true four-day.” Spring Creek ISD in Texas has also moved towards a four-day week, but often require their staff to come in for the fifth day. The aim of this program is to have everyone, staff and students, come in just four days per week.

Changing to a four-day week will change the daily bell schedule for Woodson. A normal day would be 507 minutes, which would equal eight class periods for 57 minutes each, with passing periods. The day would last from 7:45 a.m. to 4:12 p.m. Currently, the schedule calls for eight classes at 45 minutes each. This, however, is not a finalized plan and is subject to be changed. And despite losing a day of the week, instruction time will increase slightly if this schedule is implemented. At 57 minutes for four days, you are getting slightly more instruction time than 45 minutes over five days.

Adams said he feels this change will not only add more time, but will make the district and lesson plans more efficient. Other sources, such as the School Superintendents Association (AASA), state school districts in New Mexico who have changed to four-day weeks have seen educational benefits in terms of their attendance and efficiency.

Student performance in a four-day week is an area that does not have a a lot of significant data at this point, but Adams said in his research and conversations he has found some benefits. Along with this, the AASA has found in a small sample size the test scores of four-day weeks in New Mexico compared to five-day weeks were slightly higher, but not high enough to be statistically significant. Another area Adams said could help performance is a decrease in absences, which he said has been shown to be present in four-day weeks.

Lastly, the change could shave off a bit of expense for the district. After factoring in one less day of overhead in terms of utilities for the school, one day less serving food and transportation, Adams estimates they could save the equivalent of about a teacher’s salary. Though, he stressed this switch was not about the money, but it is a benefit.

Cons

No system is perfect and Adams was willing to admit that. He said some of the larger concerns with the program include childcare. With an extra day off, parents would have to find childcare for their children, which he said can be difficult for working parents. But he believes the challenge can be solved.

“From our research, what we found is the question comes up, ‘well what do you do with kids during summer or spring break,’” Adams said. “School is not a daycare. We’re trying to look at a better way to educate and attract strong teachers.”

Another concern is food. Adams said some kids have their best meal at school and losing a day on the week means they are losing a meal. To remedy this, the district plans to implement a backpack program, which will send non-perishable food items home with kids in need.

With the district having grades kindergarten through 12th grade, the length of the day can be a concern for young kids also. Adams said as it stands now, Woodson already has a pretty long day. He said that can be difficult for all kids, particularly the younger ones. He said this is another issue that he believes kids will adapt to and will ultimately be a non-issue.

The proposed schedule will also have less pep rallies than prior years. But to compromise, Adams and the board have built the schedule to have school on the Fridays when they will host home football games. They will have pep rallies on these days.

Background

It wasn’t until recently this kind of proposal was possible. In 2015, the state of Texas changed their requirements for schools. Students were required to attend school for a certain amount of days, specifically 180 days. This has now been changed to minutes, with the new requirement at 75,600 minutes.

However, teachers are still required to attend for 187 days. But a couple years ago, thanks to a change by the state, which allows certain school districts to be designated as “Districts of Innovation,” Woodson ISD has been made exempt from this requirement. But teachers still are paid by the amount of days they work, which means Woodson will have to increase their teachers’ daily rates to make up for the day missed. Adams said they will be making the same money.

Adams is hoping a fourday week will provide more flexibility in scheduling to those who work in the district or are looking for work.

“The one thing that teachers enjoy — and it’s hard to even put an amount of how much money it’s worth to them — is more time,” Adams said. “Think of the time you could spend with your family on a three-day weekend if it was consistent.”

Adams said he and a group of board members and teachers took a trip up to some schools in Oklahoma, who have implemented a four-day week. He said it provided those in Woodson the opportunity to ask questions and voice concerns. He added before the trip, several in the group were skeptical of the concept, with some adamantly against and others on the fence. After the trip, however, the skepticism had dwindled.

“When you hear the same message over and over, ‘we love it and we never want to go back,’ from parents, school board members, teachers, students,” Adams said. “When everybody is saying the same thing, we’re like, ‘well, why not try it?’”

The option comes with low risk for those within the district as well. The change would not take effect until next school year, but if the change does not work out, there is nothing limiting the district from immediately going back to the five-day week.

Adams said he will be trying to get feedback from the community. He is planning to send a survey out to the parents of the district in response to his presentation on Monday. Then, if the change is implemented, he will want to send a survey out after the first six weeks of next year, then at the semester.

Despite his confidence in the change, Adams acknowledged it may take some time for residents to adapt to it. But he said based on what he has found out, once everyone gets used to the change he doesn’t believe it will be a big deal.

Ultimately, Adams said they just want to communicate to parents and the district that this is a new idea, but acknowledged if a majority of residents do not like the idea then it will not happen.

“The main thing we’re looking for and are going to ask our community is we’re just trying to get their support to try it,” Adams said. “We’re not trying to ram this down their throat and say, ‘this is the way we’re doing it.’”