Not quite halfway into the first semester of the school year, the jury is still out regarding a move to a four-day week at two area districts that made the change this year.
Although leaders at Wagoner and Catoosa school districts say the transition to the new schedule has been smooth, they agree it is too early to tell what total savings will be and whether academics will be affected.
“I’m not lighting the candles on the cake just yet,” Wagoner Superintendent Randy Harris said.
Harris said so far teachers and students seem to have adjusted to the new schedule fairly well. Absenteeism is down, and vacant teaching positions were easier to fill this year, he said.
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One of the reasons cited by many districts last year as they considered a four-day week was gaining an edge in teacher recruitment and retention by being able to offer a three-day weekend.
But Harris is waiting until fall break later this month, when he said there will be more definitive data available to him regarding the effects of the change.
Catoosa Superintendent Rick Kibbe also is pleased with the adjustment to the new schedule.
Both districts added about an hour to each day, meaning kids are in school for about eight hours.
This year, 139 districts across the state are on a four-day school week, State Superintendent of Instruction Joy Hofmeister said. That is nearly one-third of Oklahoma’s 515 total districts. The number is up from 100 districts that were on a four-day schedule for at least a portion of last year. Many, including Wagoner and Catoosa, began considering the idea as the education budget in Oklahoma continued to shrink.
“Every superintendent is trying to be as creative as possible,” Harris said.
Shorter week, longer days
Opponents of the four-day week, including Hofmeister, have expressed concern about the length of the school day, especially for younger students. But Harris and Kibbe, along with teachers in their two districts, said that everyone adjusted quickly.
Jeremy Holmes, Wagoner Middle School principal, said students still get restless at the end of the school day, but “seventh hour is traditionally a pretty rowdy hour” anyway.
Teachers at both the elementary and middle school levels said frequent “brain breaks” have helped keep kids focused, and the extra snacks offered because of the longer days also keep kids alert.
Catoosa teacher Jonnie Mott said she hasn’t seen any tiredness from her kindergartners.
“They’re responding really well,” she said.
Heather Riggs, a mother of two Wagoner students, said the length of the day is not so much a problem at school. It’s the shorter evenings at home that present a problem for her and her kids.
“We feel more rushed,” she said.
Shorter evenings mean things like after-school activities, chores, homework and family time get crunched.
“Because bedtime hasn’t changed,” Riggs said.
Teachers, on the other hand, say that the lengthened school days have given them more time with students during each session.
Teri Oliver, a pre-algebra and Algebra I teacher at Wagoner Middle School, said five to 10 minutes of time had always been lost in the transition between classes — as students took out their books and supplies and then repacked them to go to the next class.
“Ten minutes is a lot of time,” she said.
Harris said there is also more “bell-to-bell” instruction going on because teachers realize that they need every minute of their class sessions.
Riggs, who also attended school in Wagoner, said she knows a lot of teachers in the district. She was initially worried about a possible negative effect on her children’s education if they spent fewer days in school. But after the change was implemented, she hasn’t noticed a drop in rigor.
“(The new schedule) seems to have invigorated the teachers,” she said. “People seem to be down to business, working hard.”
Day care, food needs met
Child care during the off day — Mondays in Wagoner, Fridays in Catoosa — was also a concern for some parents before the change.
But the concern voiced at forums does not seem to have panned out, district officials said.
Harris said his district worked over the summer to bring Latchkey Child Services to Wagoner, to give parents an option for Mondays. The child care program would offer full-day care on Mondays for $30 per child. But he said only a minimal number of parents have utilized the service.
“I guess parents are being resourceful,” he said.
In Catoosa, teachers have heard that several parents became licensed for at-home day cares, giving other working parents an option for Fridays.
Officials in both districts are also on the lookout for any potential hunger problems for students with families that have difficulty feeding them during the weekend.
In Catoosa, the three elementary schools participate in the Food for Kids program through the Claremore Salvation Army.
“We will be sending bags of food home with students in need every Thursday,” said Tyra Haight, principal of the Helen Paul Learning Center. “We are working on adding some extra food because of the four-day week.”
In Wagoner, where all students receive free lunch during the school year through the USDA’s Community Eligibility Provision, the district will be able to provide a lunch on Mondays at the Latchkey child care program, as well as at additional school sites.
Harris said the district would offer a “grab-and-go-type meal” at one or more locations if there is a need.
Lingering concerns
Riggs said overall she and her kids — one in middle school and one in high school — enjoy the new schedule.
“The kids are amazed at how fast the week goes,” she said.
But there is still some schedule juggling, with schools still holding extracurricular activities on the off days.
And Riggs said she is somewhat concerned about how students will occupy themselves on the extra day off.
“Even though I feel like they are getting a great education Tuesday through Friday, but in this era with the amount of screens that our kids watch, I still do step back and have a little bit of concern in keeping the kids occupied,” Riggs said.
“I don’t want them sitting and wasting time on social media, or getting into trouble. It’s an issue, because most parents do have to work.”
Harris and Kibbe acknowledged Hofmeister’s opposition to the schedule. They expressed respect for the state superintendent but said different things work for different districts.
Kibbe said a lot of thought went into making the decision to go to four-day school. He himself was opposed to the idea when it was proposed to him in previous years. But after looking at the data, he changed his mind.
“We did not take this decision lightly at all,” he said. “We all took this very, very seriously. We spent a lot of hours discussing the pros and cons.”
Kibbe said district officials will regroup in the spring and re-survey the community.
“If it’s not successful after we do our surveys, then we’ll try something else,” he said. “But you’re a failure if you at least don’t try.”
Harris, too, said Wagoner district officials put great thought into the decision, and that if data shows it was not successful this year, a change will be made.
“I’ve got two kids in this district,” he said. “I’m not gonna handicap their education.”
