WMU considers four-day school week

WINFIELD — Winfield-Mt. Union Community School District asks the community for input as they consider further research into a four-day school week for the district.

“We've been discussing [the four-day school week] with our labor management team for probably the last year or so when we got some comments from community about how to improve our school, how to improve staff retention, attracting and retaining staff,” WMU Superintendent Jeff Maeder said.

“If it's proven that it will help to attract good people, then I think it's something that you at least have to take a look at, right?” Maeder said.

According to Maeder, there is not very much information available because the district only recently began researching outside of the labor management team.

March 31 the district sent out a survey asking for the school district family’s initial interest in the idea.

“We felt like this was a good first step in just gauging any community interest, any concerns or questions that the community had,” Maeder said.

“Based on the 'Calendar Survey', WMU Community School District is looking into the merits of a four-day school week,” the short, three-question survey informs. “This would not be for the 2023-2024 school year but could be looked at for future years. Many school districts are looking into this option and WMU would like to get your opinion and questions about having the possibility of a four-day school week.”

The survey asks two questions on a scale of one to 10: how knowledgeable do invest parties consider themselves about the subject and how do they feel about a four-day school week.

At the bottom of the survey, they invite families to share their questions and concerns for the district to further research.

“We wanted to make sure there wasn't anything that we were not thinking about or overlooking …” Maeder said. “We also just wanted to kind of get the idea out, to just have people kind of think about it.”

“We want to make sure to bring the community along with us,” he added. “We don't want to make a bunch of plans for this and have the community think that a decision has already been made because we definitely want to be responsive to our community.”

Educational Researcher Emily Morton, know for her studies on four-day school weeks, agrees that community buy-in is necessary for a successful four-day school week.

“If parents aren’t gonna be able to support their kids on that extra day, it’s going to be a huge financial hardship for families,” she said.

Morton also encourages schools to reach out to business stakeholders to obtain a more complete view of the necessary supports.

The WMU four-day school week survey will remain available through April 25 through the schools website and their Facebook page.

While Maeder stated that the district waits to decide next steps until they review the survey results, a study committee might be on the horizon.

“We even feel like any kind of a study committee needs to include be inclusive of parents and other community people in addition to school staff,” Maeder said.

Maeder hypothesized that the district would, “probably rely a lot on what others schools have done and try to get information from them about kind of things that they learned along the way that if we were going to change to this that we would try to avoid.”

With WACO Community School District only a short drive from WMU, Maeder anticipates more conversations with that district if plans do proceed.

“I just want to put everyone at ease,” Maeder said. “We're not anywhere near making any decisions, and there'll be a lot more time for people to provide input before we ever begin anything.”

Comments: AnnaMarie.Ward@southeastiowaunion.com