New Math for Schools: 4-Day Week?

By HATTIE BROWN GARROW

By Hattie Brown Garrow

The Virginian-Pilot

In Hidalgo County, N.M., school bus rides can last more than an hour one way. That’s a lot of diesel fuel.

About 260 students attend Animas Public Schools, one of two districts in the rural county where warm-weather temperatures often rise above 80 degrees during the school year. That’s a lot of air conditioning.

To save some money, Animas switched to a four-day school week more than a decade ago, said Superintendent Jerry Birdwell. Having Fridays off equals one less day a week to send out buses, plus lower heating and cooling costs – an estimated $20,000 in savings annually.

For years, very few other school systems – none in Virginia – followed suit. Now, confronted by rising prices for fuel, food and energy, the Suffolk division is asking its School Board to consider it . With roughly 14,000 students, Suffolk’s school system is the smallest among the five cities in South Hampton Roads.

“It’s something that more districts are looking at right now, especially rural districts” with longer bus routes, said Marc Egan, director of federal affairs for the Alexandria-based National School Boards Association.

Still, only slightly more than 100 out of some 15,000 nationwide have made the change , Egan said.

“This is not a major switch that’s taking place,” said Daniel Domenech, executive director for the Arlington-based American Association of School Administrators. “It certainly is on the fringes.”

The enormity of such a change is one reason larger districts have not adopted that schedule, educators said. Other reasons include accommodating after-school activities and forcing working parents to find additional day care .

“There’s not a lot of great information about whether student achievement increases or decreases due to changes in the schedule,” Egan said.

In order to reap some of the savings, the school division’s facilities have to be shut down with no heating or cooling, said Chesapeake School Board member Tom Mercer. Friday would be the likely day off.

“When you start that, what would you do with Friday basketball?” Mercer said. “What would you do with plays? Would they continue on Fridays? What would you do on homecoming nights? Would you have a homecoming dance at the schools?”

For the Virginia Department of Education, the main concern would be making sure schools meet the 990 hours of instruction time required each school year, said spokesman Charles Pyle.

Animas Public Schools’ solution was to extend the school day . Birdwell, the superintendent, said the division might eventually have to lengthen the school year or go back to a five-day week to meet the demands of federal No Child Left Behind standards.

Parents, who fought the change at first, have now grown used to it, Birdwell said.

“I believe if we told them that we were going back to a five-day week there would be an uprising,” he said.

At least a couple of Virginia school divisions have publicly discussed a four-day school week within the past two months. The school boards in Bedford, Halifax and Middlesex counties are not making the change but will keep it under consideration for the future , administrators said.

“I don’t think any of us are going to be playing by the same rules that we’ve always played by,” said Halifax Superintendent Paul Stapleton.

The Suffolk School Board will take on the issue at a fall work session , said spokeswoman Bethanne Bradshaw. The staff is in the process of putting together a report to study the pros and cons.

Superintendent Milton Liverman said he worries that a four-day week would make it harder to recruit bus drivers – with one less day to work, it is likely the drivers would take a pay cut.

Norfolk, Portsmouth and Virginia Beach are operating under a four- day workweek this summer but have no plans to formally discuss that schedule for the regular school year.

Kentucky’s Webster County Schools district has saved at least $259,000 a year since converting to a Tuesday-to-Friday school week in 2003, said Superintendent James Kemp. Fuel and insurances costs are lower, plus fewer substitutes and regular personnel are needed.

The roughly 2,200-student district has used the savings to expand the kindergarten program and create a group of “master teachers” who act as instructional supervisors.

“It’s a reinvestment of that money that was saved,” Kemp said. “More money in curriculum and instruction means better results.”

Staff writer Alicia P.Q. Wittmeyer contributed to this report.

Hattie Brown Garrow, (757) 222-5562 hattie.brown@pilotonline.com

the issue

Some school systems across the country have switched to a four- day school week to save money.

Locally, Suffolk is the only division asking its school board to consider it. Norfolk, Portsmouth and Virginia Beach are using a four- day school week this summer. the pros

It’s all about the money. Having an extra day off equals one less day a week to send out buses (i.e., diesel fuel eaters), plus lower heating and cooling costs. One school system in Kentucky has saved at least $259,000 a year since starting the four-day schedule. the concerns

The enormity of such a change is a concern:

Accommodating after-school activities.

Forcing working parents to find added day care.

Not knowing its effect on student achievement.

Making sure schools meet the 990 hours of instruction time required each school year. under consideration

Some Virginia school divisions have recently discussed a four- day school week. The school boards in Bedford, Halifax and Middlesex counties are not making the change but will keep it under consideration.

Originally published by BY HATTIE BROWN GARROW.

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