Four-Day School Week in Kansas Saves Money
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SLJ Staff -- School Library Journal, 6/18/2008 2:05:00 PM
Two Kentucky school districts—Jenkins Independent and Webster County—have cut down to four-day weeks and say the move has been positive.
"Not only (have) we saved money, but by reallocating students' instructional time, we have been able to utilize a lot of educational enterprises we couldn't do with a five-day week," Webster Superintendent James Kemp told the Associated Press.
Jenkins Independent Superintendent John Shook also says it’s been a "tremendous success" in his schools. His district cut down to a four-day week three years ago, mainly for budgetary reasons, and they used Webster County as a model for their schedule.
Switching to four days instead of five doesn’t extend the school day as much as one might think. In Jenkins, students attend school from 8 a.m. to 3:25 p.m., and in Webster, students attend from 7:50 a.m. to 3:25 p.m.
Other nearby districts, like Pike County, are exploring the four-day school week as a possible way to compensate for state education cuts, but Superintendent Roger Wagner opposes the measure. “We may save money today, but we're dealing with these kids' future and we'll have to deal with the results later," Wagner told the AP.
Officials at Jenkins and Webster warn that their success may not translate to a large school system like Pike County. "It's easier to do in a small district than in a large district," Shook says because a larger district has many classified employees.
Both Shook and Kemp, however, say they’ve seen an increase in student and teacher attendance since implementing their schedule change. And, because student attendance is attached to state funding, the school districts say there’s been an increase in funds through increasing the percentage of student attendance. Webster County has increased its student attendance by one percentage point, which translates to $80,000 in additional funding, says Riley Ramsey, Webster County director of pupil personnel.
