China Spring adopts 4 day school week

BohunkAg

10:51a, 3/22/23

https://www.fox44news.com/news/local-news/mclennan-county/china-spring-isd-adopts-4-day-school-week/

I'm not sure this is going to be a good thing when all is said and done. Especially with potential changes coming to education requirements in the current lege session. I think this was very reactionary on their part.

Gigemchicken90

11:01a, 3/22/23

Several schools in our area have gone to a 4-day week, including Rockdale, Rogers & Academy. As a business owner, I am thankful Cameron has not done this. I already have enough employees out when they have the 4-day weekend at the end of almost six weeks.

'90

BohunkAg

11:24a, 3/22/23

It seems to me this will have a trickle down effect as these kids get older and expect to have to be productive only four days out of the week.

c-jags

2:32p, 3/22/23

My SIL is the admin assistant for Superintendent at a Houston Area school and just adopted it. tons of people yelled, but the sup said "we're about to lose teachers. we either do this or don't have enough staff for next year."

i get the pain for parents of young children but this change is coming. not agreeing with it, but it is what it is.

justnobody79

2:35p, 3/22/23

In reply to c-jags

c-jags said:
My SIL is the admin assistant for Superintendent at a Houston Area school and just adopted it. tons of people yelled, but the sup said "we're about to lose teachers. we either do this or don't have enough staff for next year."

i get the pain for parents of young children but this change is coming. not agreeing with it, but it is what it is.

I'm not sure I would want a teacher teaching my kids if he/she was only willing to work 4 days a week

mazzag

10:40p, 3/22/23

It's a way to save money. If Belton ISD was fully employed, which they are not, they'd be in the red. Quote from new CFO.

GIF Reactor

1:58p, 3/27/23

This is for China Spring and not Belton ISD though, correct?

Bulldog73

11:45a, 4/7/23

In reply to justnobody79

The good teachers are working full days 6 days a week as it stands with a seventh usually just doing some finishing touches. I understand not all teachers are good, but even the not so good or downright bad ones pour in hours upon hours of work outside of the "work day".

I'm in no way affiliated with China Spring; in fact, they generally draw my ire. However, I applaud their efforts to find a way to make it work.

It's not perfect, but it's an attempt at a solution for a growing problem.

Crusaders41

10:11p, 4/14/23

I find it sad all these districts are doing this as an attempt to hire teachers with a more lucrative work schedule. When in reality, it's probably to th3 detriment of the students education. Which is why they're supposed to be there in the 1st place.

Oh, and schools won't be saving much money if any at all. They're not paying teachers less to do this.

Gigemchicken90

1:17p, 4/15/23

I have not checked this out myself but I was told that Cameron teachers will still work 2 days fewer than Rockdale and Rockdale went to 4 day weeks. It's all about the minutes.

'90

45-70Ag

7:56a, 4/16/23

In reply to Crusaders41

Crusaders41 said:
I find it sad all these districts are doing this as an attempt to hire teachers with a more lucrative work schedule. When in reality, it's probably to th3 detriment of the students education. Which is why they're supposed to be there in the 1st place.

Oh, and schools won't be saving much money if any at all. They're not paying teachers less to do this.

They're not trying to save money, these districts can't provide pay raises and are reducing the work week by a day to make it seem like their getting more for less.

Bulldog73

8:56a, 4/16/23

I vaguely recall reading of some rural Colorado schools that were much earlier adopters to the 4 day week. They saw several compelling reasons to consider the 4 day week: reduction in utilities (electric & water usage down ~15%), significantly decreased absenteeism for both students and teachers (in Texas a way to increase funding), they also cited increased performance on testing. It's been a decade since I saw that… I'll try to find it again.

Of course, in recruiting teachers/staff it's a selling point as well. Some districts are doing half of the Fridays off, with the others as PD or intervention for struggling learners.

Texas legislature is working on policy preventing this and other similar moves, so it may be interesting to watch from afar.

Edit: clearly over time more research has been conducted. Limited effect on attendance, for schools that had at least 32 hours/week no effect on performance. https://journalistsresource.org/education/four-day-school-week-research/

3rd Generation Ag

3:00p, 4/28/23

These do save money. Bus expenses, utility expenses, and hourly pay for cafeteria workers and custodians. In most districts, only teachers and above are on salary.

The instructional minutes stay the same. Just four longer days. It gives us that extra weekend day for grading and lesson planning and we might actually be able to take one day off for worship or play. That is why teachers love it.