Kids in school four days per week poses challenges

Nov. 30—Day care capacities, the effects of longer class hours and state government concerns are among the hurdles on the horizon as the St. Joseph School District considers a big change.

Constituents will be asked in December surveys about how the district might go about dropping a day from the weekly academic calendar, most likely Monday. This would result in a four-day school week for students and employees as soon as next August.

About 160 school districts in Missouri have gone to a shortened school week, roughly one-third of the 518 total in the state. The St. Joseph School District would be the second urban, high-population agency to make the change, after the Independence School District, to which it is often compared on size and demographics.

Likely longer

class days

"I'm opposed to it because I've lived through it," said Tyler Higgins, a Robidoux Middle School parent who previously lived in Albany, Missouri, which adopted the four-day calendar in August 2012. "It's hard on the parents, it's hard on the kids ... It really wears them out. By the time they get home, there's very little time left before they have to go to bed."

Board of Education member Whitney Lanning said the idea requires careful evaluation as to whether it could be a good fit for St. Joseph. The surveys are just an initial step. Other preparations, like consultation with the local business community, would be required. However, in her role as executive director of the Community Action Partnership of Greater St. Joseph, she has presided over a four-day workweek for some time now.

"There's a lot of pros and cons, and so really being able to kind of tease those things out would, I think, be important on any decision that I know that I would cast a vote on," she said.

The length-of-day concern is based on how the state requires kids to receive at least 1,044 hours of instruction per academic year. Currently, all SJSD middle and high schoolers are scheduled for 7 hours and 10 minutes in school per weekday. Elementary students get 7 hours and 5 minutes, and they all start later in the day.

From the fourth week of August to the fourth week of the following May, that's about 165 class days and more than 1,110 hours of instruction. The district exceeds the state minimum of 1,044 to build in time for snow days and other cancelations, to avoid the need for makeup days in late May or early June.

About 30 fewer class days would be scheduled in a four-day calendar, representing around 200 hours of instruction. The norm in making up for this lost time involves adding 30 minutes to an hour to each day's schedule.

Day care, a

matter of where

In a district with more than 10,000 kids, there is also a question of finding where else students might go on the day that they are off. Missouri State University Professor Jon S. Turner said his findings show that day care worries do not seem to be a long-term problem in most-four day districts. There seems to be low long-term demand for day care.

"Our research on this has found that while child care is a struggle, it is something that works itself out relatively quickly," he said. "Most districts that adopt the four-day week try to set up some type of child care system, but by Thanksgiving of the first year, people just stopped showing up."

However, that trend will be tested in Independence, and potentially St. Joseph, because larger communities with more children potentially have less capacity to absorb a change in child care demand for an extra day, every day of the week.

"In a district the size of St. Joe, that could be very different, and that's the reason it's really important to hear the voices of parents and community members before you make the transition," Turner said.

A selling

point for staff

Amid all of this, pushback on the four-day idea has gathered steam in Jefferson City ahead of the January 2024 session of the Missouri Legislature. Commissioner of Education Margie Vandeven previously spoke on the matter. Right now, she said, four-day districts are attractive for some teacher candidates.

If four-day workweeks become the norm, that advantage will become less attractive over time.

"It's an in-depth issue, but I would just say from my chair it gives me great pause to see the number of districts who are jumping to this as a teacher recruitment and retention strategy," Vandeven told the State Board of Education earlier this year.

Either way, Turner said, Independence is reaping the benefits of its change. Would-be teacher applications have increased by more than 300%. It is part of a strategy built on how long-term career teachers are less and less common, and districts need to constantly recruit to meet student needs.

"Educators that stay in the profession for 30 years, they're unicorns," Turner said. "Now, about half of the beginning first-year teachers only make it to year six in the state of Missouri. So you see high levels of attrition in the teaching field and this four-day school week is how districts are trying to put a thumb in that dam."

School board member Isaura Garcia said the four-day concept appears to positively impact teacher recruitment.

"Which is crucial with the ongoing teacher shortage," she said. "However, I am uncertain about the potential consequences of reducing learning time and its effects on our academic goals."

The state might not allow it

Citing concerns about keeping kids in school for an adequate number of days, both Republicans and Democrats in the Legislature have said they will potentially back a ban on any future four-day calendar changes.

Districts that have done it for years, such as Lathrop R-II of Clinton County (the first in the state), likely would be grandfathered in. Yet, such a ban would stop SJSD plans in their tracks.

Lanning said the Legislature's role should be to help support education, not control local policy.

"If the state Legislature would like to do anything to help public schools, I can think of a bevy of options," she said. "Restricting our ability to make decisions for our work calendar is not one of them."

Marcus Clem can be reached at marcus.clem@newspressnow.com. Follow him on Twitter: @NPNowClem