Colorado school district moves to 4 day week

[Anonymous]

The school day willl be extended by 40 minutes at 27J, a large district northwest of Denver.
https://www.npr.org/2018/08/14/638715749/colorado-school-district-switches-to-4-day-week-to-save-money

What do you think? Would you ever be in favor of a four day school week?

[Anonymous]

It's the pot.

[Anonymous]

How would that save on teacher salaries as the article states? I can understand utilities, busing (fuel, bus driver pay) and pay of hourly employees. It says 7/10 of the savings would come from busing.

I’d be ok with it personally, but it would stink for hourly employees.

[Anonymous]

This isn’t new. 50% of Colorado school districts are like this.

[Anonymous]

Half of the families are picking their kids up mid day on a Friday anyway to avoid traffic into the mountains.

[Anonymous]

That's awful!

[Anonymous]

I think it is a great idea. I would love for the kids to have a 3-day weekend. It would make weekends, with sports and such, much less hectic. From a family perspective, this would be a wonderful move!

I understand the savings on utilities and hourly wages but I don't understand how the school systems save on teachers unless the take away one contract day a week. That would be a disaster in this area. We already have a critical teacher shortage. If teachers were shorted another 20-30 days I think there would be a complete breakdown and none of the schools would be staffed. I would support it if teachers were paid for the same number of days; I wouldn't support it if it meant they weren't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Half of the families are picking their kids up mid day on a Friday anyway to avoid traffic into the mountains.

Interestingly, though, the District went with Tu-F rather than M-Th, which seems like it would make far more sense from that perspective. But who knows.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it is a great idea. I would love for the kids to have a 3-day weekend. It would make weekends, with sports and such, much less hectic. From a family perspective, this would be a wonderful move!

I understand the savings on utilities and hourly wages but I don't understand how the school systems save on teachers unless the take away one contract day a week. That would be a disaster in this area. We already have a critical teacher shortage. If teachers were shorted another 20-30 days I think there would be a complete breakdown and none of the schools would be staffed. I would support it if teachers were paid for the same number of days; I wouldn't support it if it meant they weren't.

This is only really a good move for families if it's an area where dual income families are rare, though. If both parents work, then the kids are undoubtedly enrolled in the daycare program on the fifth day anyway, so they don't really get a three-day weekend.

It sounds like they're saving money on teaching salaries by reducing the overall hours of instruction (since 40 extra minutes x four days is less than three hours). On the other hand, it sounds like they tried six times to get voters to fund the schools and were voted down each time, so they get what they get. Public school isn't free, contrary to popular opinion.

[Anonymous]

If they are saving in salaries it can’t be much. According to the article they are saving $1 mil, $700k of which is from transportation costs.

They are offering daycare for $30/day. I wonder how they aren’t losing money at that rate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If they are saving in salaries it can’t be much. According to the article they are saving $1 mil, $700k of which is from transportation costs.

They are offering daycare for $30/day. I wonder how they aren’t losing money at that rate.

$1M is a lot of money, don't get me wrong, but they are making some pretty drastic changes to only save $1M.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Half of the families are picking their kids up mid day on a Friday anyway to avoid traffic into the mountains.

Interestingly, though, the District went with Tu-F rather than M-Th, which seems like it would make far more sense from that perspective. But who knows.

No passes are blacked out on mondays and it doesn’t matter which nights you stay to meet the required weekend minimum- so you go up sat off hours and ski Sunday and Monday- less crowds and no blackouts and less traffic.

[Anonymous]

No other country I know seems to pay for all their kids to be bussed to school. Why can't we create a fee for an additional bus service for those who can afford it at least?

[Anonymous]

Fairfax County should definitely move to a four day school week. Their current educational model is a disaster. Their teachers are unmotivated, overranked, poorly educated and lack any semblance inspiration whatsoever. FCPS is not an educational system it is K-12 holding pen until the students can leave a get a real education somewhere else.

FCPS should have a five year pilot program where their students can seek one day per week of quality education and their existing teachers will spend one day per week in college relearning the content matter they failed to learn the first time they went to college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it is a great idea. I would love for the kids to have a 3-day weekend. It would make weekends, with sports and such, much less hectic. From a family perspective, this would be a wonderful move!

I understand the savings on utilities and hourly wages but I don't understand how the school systems save on teachers unless the take away one contract day a week. That would be a disaster in this area. We already have a critical teacher shortage. If teachers were shorted another 20-30 days I think there would be a complete breakdown and none of the schools would be staffed. I would support it if teachers were paid for the same number of days; I wouldn't support it if it meant they weren't.

This is only really a good move for families if it's an area where dual income families are rare, though. If both parents work, then the kids are undoubtedly enrolled in the daycare program on the fifth day anyway, so they don't really get a three-day weekend.

It sounds like they're saving money on teaching salaries by reducing the overall hours of instruction (since 40 extra minutes x four days is less than three hours). On the other hand, it sounds like they tried six times to get voters to fund the schools and were voted down each time, so they get what they get. Public school isn't free, contrary to popular opinion.

This would be a disaster in the DMV, where many families are dual-income. It might be great for families with a SAHP, but I'd be opposed to my kid going to school four days a week (for longer days) and then spending a day in daycare. I get if they really don't have the money, but this doesn't seem like a great idea.