Four-Day School Week Discussed at Length by LGISD Board
The main topic of discussion at the February meeting of the La Grange School Board was the four-day week calendar proposal.
Superintendent Andy McHazlett cited the primary reason for considering a fourday school week calendar was teacher recruitment and retention. He said that he had spoken to the superintendent at LaVernia about how changing to a four-day school week affected his recruitment efforts. He (the LaVernia superintendent) said after making the change, “they have a line of people wanting to get in there and teach.” McHazlett continued, “And that’s exciting.” He went on to say the LaVernia superintendent said “It feels like student engagement is up. It feels like teacher morale is up.”
A survey was sent out to parents of students currently enrolled in LGISD. The survey was sent out in English and in Spanish, and a separate survey was sent to staff. There were 565 parent response and 193 staff responses.
Survey results revealed the following:
• Question: Would you be in favor of a four-day school week?
Parents: Yes - 63.7%, No – 23.9%, Maybe - 12.4% Staff: Yes – 75.1%, No – 7.8%, Maybe – 17.1%
• Question: Would you be in favor of a four-day school week if the district provided childcare on the 5th day?
Parents: Yes – 61.6%, No – 26.4%, Maybe – 12% Staff: Yes – 62.7%, No – 13.5%, Maybe – 23.8%
• Question: Do you believe a four-day school week will improve student attendance: Parents: Yes – 54.9%, No – 28.8%, Maybe – 16.3% Staff: Yes – 64.8%, No – 10.9%, Maybe – 24.4%
• Question: Do you believe a four-day week will impact your family in a positive way?
Parents: Yes – 58.1%, No – 24.8%, Maybe – 17.2% Staff: Yes – 75.6%, No – 8.3%, Maybe – 16.1%
• Question: What is your greatest concern with a fourday school week? The four areas addressed were: length of school day, access to school provided meals, extracurricular impact, childcare on Friday.
Of the parents who responded to the survey, about half are concerned in some way about the length of the day, less than a quarter are concerned about school provided meals, about one third are concerned about extracurricular impact and less than a quarter are concerned about childcare on Friday. The staff responses were very similar to that of the parents.
There were four possible options presented in the survey.
• Option A – No student days on Fridays; 500 minutes per day – 8 a.m.-4:20 p.m.
• Option B – Students attend on Fridays in August only; 485 minutes per day – 8 a.m.-4:05 p.m.
• Option C – Students attend on Fridays in August and September only; 470 minutes per day – 8 a.m.-3:50 p.m.
• Option D – Traditional 5 day school week The responses from the parents were A – 33.2%, B – 12.5%, C – 31.1%, and D – 23.1.
The responses from the staff were: A – 16.6%, B – 19.7%, C – 50.8 %, and D – 13%.
Overall, the results of the survey indicate that 76.9% of the parents who responded were in favor of a four-day/ hybrid school week over the traditional five-day school week and 87% of the staff were in favor of a four-day/hybrid school week. https://www. lgisd.net/article/2043519 McHazlett said of the concerns, “For every positive, you are going to have a negative. There is not a lot of clear-cut data that says this is what is best for the kids.”
McHazlett continued “This started off with a couple of schools moving to a fourday week and every year they have added more. There have been very few go back to a five-day week, but there have been some.”
McHazlett said that he wanted to get this information to the board and the public this month and that next month “we will be talking about which direction we want to go as a district.” He continued, “There is also a chance that during this 89th legislative session, that there will be a bill filed to move back to the day requirement instead of minutes. And if that happens, then this is all for naught. Although if you have already approved one (four day school week) then there are rumors that you could be grandfathered in. All we can do is try to make the decision that we feel is best for our kids and our community. Whatever decision we make, we are going to give it our full gusto. If we need to reevaluate it next year, then we will do that.”
After this presentation, there was some discussion amongst the board members.
Anthony Wessels asked, “Of the schools that have gone back (to five day weeks), do we have information as to why? McHazlett responded, “The one that I’m aware of is Dime Box and they were one of the first school districts to go to four day weeks. I don’t know why they made the change back.”
Calvin Mersiovsky asked, “Is there any data out there yet on the ones that have gone to a four-day week as far as academics? Has is hurt? McHazlett responded, “The school districts that I have talked to said it hasn’t hurt them.”
Wessels asked, “How many minutes are in a day on our traditional calendar?” McHazlett responded, “It’s about 455 minutes. So right now we go from 8 a.m. to 3:35 p.m., that’s 455 minutes.”
Travis Ulrich stated, “The results definitely show that there is an appetite out there for some school change and if it’s going to add to our teacher retention and recruitment, then there’s something to be said for that.
Mary Gunn asked, “Do we know the percentage of parental responses?” McHazlett responded, “We aren’t completely sure. Some families have more than one child. When I talked to other districts (of similar size) and told them we had over 500 responses back from parents, they said that was a lot more than they got back when they surveyed the parents.”
Wessels then stated, “My concern is that even with the longer day, no matter how you shake it out, you are losing half to almost a full day of time. So that’s less teaching days. We’ve extended the minutes, but it’s not the same.”
McHazlett stated, “The total minutes is what you look at. On Option A there are 76,210 minutes (500 minute day), Option B is 75,955 minutes (485 minute day), Option C is 76,000 minutes (470 minute day), and Option D (Traditional 5-day calendar) is 78,275 minutes (455 minute day).”
McHazlett also said, “The concern (on the longer day) is that it’s tougher on those elementary kiddos to stay focused. Right now we are getting out at 3:30 p.m. and going to 4:20 p.m., that’s 50 more minutes for that day. That’s a long time for those kids. The other thing that is a downfall for that one (Option A) is you do not start your band or athletics until after 4:20 p.m.”
Mersiovsky said, “We knew that when we first looked at this, that we wanted to increase teacher morale, and going to a four-day week would probably save us some money. Are there any numbers on the savings?”
McHazlett responded, “The number of savings, transportation on Fridays would be a significant savings – the price of diesel running all the buses twice a day – that would be big. (Otherwise) there is not a significant savings but we have 1,846 students and it seems like everyone goes to the restroom at least twice a day. The use of water, (will decrease) so there will be some small savings there.”
Wessels voiced another concern, “Our teachers are teaching for testing. We will lose time that we had before.”
McHazlett responded, “You go from 77,000 minutes to 76,200, that’s 800 minutes. So, a day and a half. The big testing is in April, that’s why we wanted to start school earlier (in August.)
Wessels said, “We’ve been through this at my job. I was against it. My team convinced us to try (the four-day week) and it has been good. But that was only for our department. The time and the testing and the kids, it just leaves me with reservations on this. But we have some time to do some research.”
Gunn asked, “So we haven’t spoken to Dime Box or any other school that has gone from four days back to five? I think it would be interesting to see the reasons for going from four-day week to five.”
McHazlett told the board, “We don’t know what we don’t know until we know it. Some of the communities have done this for three years and their survey says 85% want to keep doing it. Some of them want to go back. That’s the beauty of it. We have the flexibility. This is not what we are going to do forever. I want to do what is best for our kids first, and what is best for our staff and what is best for our parents.”
McHazlett continued by telling the board that Smithville and Giddings are also talking about a four-day week. So, are we going to lead or are we going to follow?”