Highland schools may switch to 4-day week

RIVERSIDE — Pre-K through 12th grade students from Ainsworth and Riverside may spend only Monday through Thursday in the classroom starting this fall, according to officials at the Highland Community School District.

The school board will discuss the proposal for a four-day school week at a work session Jan. 22 and likely put the matter to a vote sometime in February, according to Superintendent Ken Crawford.

Crawford called the proposal a “big, bold, epic” step to help attract teaching talent that’s often out of reach for small schools like Highland during an ongoing teacher shortage, given its relatively small certified enrollment of 583 students, according to the Iowa Department of Education.

“As we take a look to the west of us, we have bigger districts that can pay more, and we look to the east of us and we’ve got districts about our size that compete for the same talent pool; How do we stand out to potential candidates, how do we keep our teachers here?” Crawford said.

“When you take a look at the younger generation, they value a little bit more time to themselves, (and) they’ll work longer days to have those three days off,” he later added. “That’s valuable time for young adults, and that’s our teaching pool.”

While older staff members showed some initial skepticism, Crawford said he believed the overwhelming majority of school employees favored the change. An official poll of school staff is still in the works.

To the southwest, WACO schools — where Crawford is also a superintendent — have used 4-day school weeks for about a decade. He said other districts in the state had increasingly reached out with questions about the model over the last year and a half, but that few had committed yet to such a drastic change.

“I feel like we’re at a tipping point,” he said. “Someone needs to be the leader in this area and put it out there, do it, and lead the way … and we want to be a leader in this area. We want to step out of traditional thoughts, traditional roles, and say, ‘We’re going after this because we believe this is what’s best for our students, for our teachers and for our community.’”

Crawford said the 4-day week would change surprisingly little about the school day itself. The first period bell would ring at 8 a.m. and class would get out at 3:45 p.m., adding 45 minutes to each day for students, while teachers would come in 20 minutes before and leave 45 minutes after.

The result would drop the district from 178 teaching days per year to around 150, but an almost equal number of classroom hours; something like 1,100 hours, to the district’s current 1,106. Days would contain seven periods, each lasting a little over 55 minutes. The school year would still start after the state-mandated date of Aug. 23, and end — weather permitting — by Memorial Day in May. The change would not affect Kirkwood classes or graduation credit requirements.

According to an FAQ posted on the district’s website, the change would end the practice of once-a-week early-out days. Teacher professional development would instead occur on 17 Fridays over the course of the year.

“We’ve taken a lot of look at those particulars … you just still need a final decision by the school board to say, ‘OK, now let’s make things concrete,’” Crawford said.

Crawford said he didn’t expect the longer school days to worsen students’ education. On the contrary, he said the change would likely improve teacher retention, which would be a net-positive for learners.

“What’s best for students is having an experienced teacher in there that’s going to be staying … having a teacher come in every two years is not what we want to have, that turnover is not what we want to shoot for,” he said. “Yes, the first few months will be an adjustment, but that’s true with any change. There’s always that implementation dip, and then we’ll be fine.”

There are, of course, obstacles to such a drastic change in school operations.

Most notable, according to Crawford, would be the need for child care and the question of food security for families that rely on the district for their kids’ meals on most days.

On the first issue, Crawford said the district would likely keep its Before and After School Program running on Fridays, and would hopefully launch extracurriculars to certify older students as babysitters, who could help meet the needs of district families with younger kids.

As for food issues, he said the change would require careful attention to Highland’s BackPack Program, food pantries, and other resources for people in need.

“I think it would just be a more concerted effort to make sure those food pantries had what they need,” he said. “During COVID we did a really good job of making sure those were stocked, and I think our district would do the same, being consciousof that and trying to promote it.”

In the meantime, the district has a handful of dates set up for parental feedback meetings. Currently, those are set for Jan. 16 and 18 at 5:30 p.m. in the high school boardroom.

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com