Pekin to host townhall meetings on possible four-day week

PACKWOOD – Pekin Community School District will host a couple of public townhall meetings to get community feedback about the prospect of switching to a four-day school week next year.

The townhalls will be at 6 p.m. in the Pekin High School Gymnasium on Wednesday, Feb. 21 and Friday, March 1.

Pekin Superintendent Derek Philips said the townhalls are an opportunity for the public to ask questions about switching to a four-day week, something that Pekin’s School Improvement Advisory Committee (SIAC) has been investigating.

A SIAC subcommittee was formed to study this issue specifically, and invited members of the public to complete a survey in January. Philips said results of the survey showed that 65 percent of respondents favored switching to four days, 25 percent of responders were against the switch, and 10 percent were neutral.

Philips said that, after the two townhalls, the school district plans to send another survey to community members to gauge how they feel about a four-day school week after they’ve had a chance to have their questions answered.

The Pekin school board’s next meeting is March 11, and the board could vote to make the switch to four days at that meeting.

Philips told The Union in an earlier interview that the district is looking at a four-day week as a way to attract and retain teachers. WACO and Cardinal are a few local school districts that have already made the switch to four days a week, and both Winfield-Mt. Union and Highland just voted to make the change next school year.

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Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com