You’ve heard of the four-day workweek, but what about the four-day school week?
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The Independence School District in Missouri decided to test it out when its board voted 6-1 on December 13 to shorten the school week to just four days, TODAY.com reported. Naturally, the move elicited some “mixed” responses from parents.
The district claims the shift is one of necessity, citing the lack of teachers and support staff, including paraprofessionals, bus drivers and custodians.
According to data reported by The Wall Street Journal, some 300,000 public school teachers and other staff left the field between February 2020 and May 2022 — a nearly 3% dip.
In the Missouri school district, Mondays will be positioned as voluntary days of learning beginning in the 2023-24 school year, with the option for student courses offering academic enrichment (field trips, tutoring, clubs, etc.) — or remediation.
The other school days will each be 35 minutes longer. Teachers will not have to work on Mondays, and those who do will earn extra pay.
Only some programs will provide transportation, and childcare will be available at local elementary schools for a fee. And though the district says it will still offer its reduced-price or free lunches, how that program will operate remains undecided.
The majority of U.S. workers want a four-day workweek, per a Qualtrics survey, but not all Independence School District parents are on board when it comes to truncating their children’s educations.
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“Many parents are upset about this,” school board member Anthony Mondaine told TODAY.com. “(Some) have talked about exploring other school districts or leaving the community.”
He added that the burden of childcare in some cases “will likely fall on someone’s aging grandmother who has to take care of a child because their parents have to work.”