It’s a Friday afternoon and every kid is just dying to leave the school behind and focus on their weekend plans. You know as a teacher it can be hard to keep the attention of a class of 20 students for more than 20 minutes. Especially on a Friday.

With the discussion of a four-day school week on the table, Superintendent Mr. Jay Curtis has stated, “A school calendar should be a reflection of community and educational values.” A recent survey included this topic; school district teachers and patrons were asked to respond.

So, what’s the buzz in the halls and the homes around town?  Here are five reasons why a four-day school week could be supported in Park County School District 1.

1. It would help decrease the amount we spend funding busses, food, etc. … By making the week shorter there may not be major decreases in cost, but there would be enough to make a difference.
2. The teachers would have more professional development days. In our district we have professional development days about every other Wednesday. So by moving to every Friday we would be implementing more time for teachers to collaborate.
3. Having a shorter school week does not have a negative effect on students test scores and academic school work. Mr.  Curtis said, “The number of instructional hours does not vary a whole lot between the three formats, and actually, the research is very clear that the calendar format is far less important than what we do with the time we have.” How our schedule looks is far less important than how we spend our time in the classroom.
4. There would be a decrease in absences for students and teachers. Fridays are the least attended day of the week for both the students and staff. If we were to implement this four-day schedule, we will slowly be decreasing the amount of absences in our school.
5. By having those couple of extra free hours students would be able to work on and complete assignments, rather than work on them over the weekend. Students will then have more time to spend with their families or doing something else they enjoy rather than worry about schoolwork.

Going to a four-day school week would be beneficial to our school district.

The teachers would enjoy it as well. They wouldn’t have to be struggling to keep the attention span of little kindergarteners or of high school students who really just don’t want to be there any more then you do.

If we are seriously considering this change in the school schedule. we would see great results throughout the district.