Washington schools hold 4-day week survey

WASHINGTON — The Washington school district released a survey on Wednesday to assess families’ interest in a potential four-day school week.

The non-traditional schedule approach has gained considerable traction in Southeast Iowa this year, with Highland and Winfield-Mt. Union schools recently announcing the switch as early as next school year, saying they hope to improve teacher recruitment and retention. Other nearby districts, like New London and Pekin, say they’re seriously considering the same thing.

If Washington does adopt a four-day schedule, it would be the biggest school in the area to do so by far, with an enrollment count nearly three times that of Highland’s.

“Some of it is driven by, a lot of the districts around us are looking at it, and several of them have already switched to it,” Superintendent Willie Stone said.

Stone added that a four-day school week would also allow extra time to evaluate student data, hold professional development meetings, and build up collaborative teams on the new class-free weekday.

All of those are difficult with the disruptions of a student-filled school day, even on early-outs.

“At Stewart and Lincoln, getting kids out of the building … they have to be watched, whereas the high school and middle school kids just go,” Stone said. “So with the two-hour early-out, Stewart gets maybe an hour and a half of PD time, which doesn’t allow them to get (Collaborative Team) time. A lot of them do CT time outside of contract hours.”

Washington’s tentative model looks a little different from the other schools, however, according to a district-wide email from Stone. He said the plan involved five-day, Monday-Friday classes roughly every other week until winter break, with a four-day schedule each week thereafter.

During four-day weeks, class would start at 8 a.m., and end at 3:45 p.m. Staff work time would be from 7:45-4:15, according to Stone.

In his email, the superintendent stressed that the plan was preliminary, with the survey only intended to gather opinions before school board members discuss the possibility in earnest.

“After the surveys are completed, the board will look at the information and decide how we move forward from there,” the email said. “Do we do a deeper dive into this and hold community forums, or are we not interested in changing to this at this time? If they decide to look deeper into this, we will create a frequently asked questions sheet with information to share and hold open forums for people to discuss the topic.”

The survey was online until 10 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 25. Stone said he he hoped a variety of district residents would fill out the brief questionnaire, not just those associated with the school.

“I want community to take it also,” he said. “The board wants to get a feeling of, ‘Hey, where’s our community sit with this?’ … this is just us reaching out to our community, and seeing what our community wants.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com