LGISD Looking Into Possibility of Four-Day School Week

La Grange Independent School District is considering changing to a four-day school week.

In a message to parents sent out Thursday, the district announced the idea and then followed that up with a survey to parents Friday.

The plan would include a longer school day Monday through Thursday with Fridays off. The district indicated it would still offer enrichment programs, meals and free child care to anyone that needs it on Fridays.

Also Friday extracurricular events would continue as normal.

“What parents say (in the survey) will be the deciding factor,” Superintendent Andy McHazlett told the Record Friday. “We have to look at ways to make us better, help parents, help staff, and not just do things one way because it’s the way things have always been done.”

He said there were a number of motivating factors that encouraged the district to look into the change.

A major one was the shortage of teachers. McHazlett said one district he talked to that changed to a four-day school week saw their applicants increase by 400-percent.

“The applicant pool is shallow and doesn’t seem like it’s getting better,” he said. “There’s a teacher shortage statewide and nationwide.”

He added that when applicants see what a new teacher will start off making at LGISD (between $40,000-50,000 a year) that they quickly realize they can make more than that in other fields.

McHazlett said that LGISD staff was previously surveyed about a potential 4-day week, and a whopping 93-percent said they would like the district to look into it further.

He also said attendance could be improved by a 4-day week.

Right now the mostmissed day of the week by students and teachers is Friday, McHazlett said, and the state reimburses schools based on attendance. He also said a four-day week could have mental health benefits for staff and students.

“There’s a extra day to get work done and an extra day to spend time with family,” he said.

To meet the state minimum minute requirements, the school would need to start about 8 a.m. and go to 4:20 p.m. (about 50 minutes longer than normal now) if they didn’t have Friday classes.

Under that plan school would start for students more than week earlier in August and last a week longer in May.

Other option being offered to parents are hybrid approaches with a five-day week in August and September and then Fridays off the rest of the year, with the school day extended to just 3:50 p.m. or 4:05 in those scenarios.

McHazlett said the latest a decision could be made on the issue to be able to implement it for the upcoming school year would be by the March board meeting.

He said there’s pros and cons to staying the same or chancing to a four-day week, but is excited to know what feedback parents have about the idea.

Of note:

• According to report by KXAN news in Austin at least 111 school districts across Texas have now switched to four-day school weeks, often in a bid to prevent teacher turnover. Few of those schools are in this area, but McHazlett said that if one area school did make a change to four-day-aweek school, it might cause other areas school to follow suit to keep their teachers.

• In 2015, Texas lawmakers passed a bill which changed how classroom instruction was timed. Districts no longer had to provide 180 days of classes, but instead a minimum of 75,600 minutes. Requiring minutes instead of a set number of days gave districts more flexibility in how they scheduled classes.