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