District stays course on four-day planning
By Marcus Clem
Plans are still underway to develop a four-day calendar for local schools, despite some school board pushback and ongoing calls to make the idea illegal in Missouri.
The St. Joseph Board of Education discussed the concept this week, which if put in place would likely involve kids not attending class anymore on Mondays. In similar districts, teacher recruitment has improved by as much as 400% over the previous year. Meanwhile, legislation is gaining steam in Jefferson City to curtail the concept. One prominent effort, by Rep. Aaron McMullen of Independence, Missouri, would stop districts from newly adopting the plan. Another would force current four-day districts, in most cases, to resume five-day attendance.
Assistant Superintendent Brian Kraus, who grapples with teacher recruitment challenges as chief of human resources, said that pending legislation will not interfere with four-day planning.
“I think we have to move forward with whatever is the best plan, whatever we believe to be best for kids,” Kraus said. “It’s hard enough to predict what’s gonna happen in our own district, let alone what’s gonna happen at the statewide legislative level.”
A district survey of 1,748 parents showed that 48.7% of respondents favored or strongly favored the four-day idea. Some 13.6% are neutral, while those opposed are at 37.7%. Separate surveys of 380 students and 837 staffers reflected clear majorities in favor of the four-day concept, while only 14.6% of students and 18.2% of staff opposed it to varying degrees.
As things stand, Board President LaTonya Williams and colleague Whitney Lanning have endorsed the four-day concept, while past president David Foster and another member, Isaura Garcia, have pushed back. Garcia said Monday that staff recruitment needs to be improved, but this is not the way.
“Although I do think this is a good recruitment and retention strategy, I don’t think it’s good academically,” Garcia said. “Only 24.6% of (surveyed) parents said that they believe this would help increase their student grades. The parents don’t even feel confident saying this is going to help their grades. At the end of the day, we are for academics, and to teach our kids.”
Lanning warned that if something is not done soon to boost recruitment and retention, the district will be left with fewer and fewer veteran teachers to help junior educators, who form the bulk of St. Joseph’s classroom workforce. Staff turnover figures at about 20% per year. Inevitably, Lanning argued, that will deprive students of experienced help to an unacceptable degree.
“If you would have asked me a year ago if I thought a four-day school week was good for public education, I would have told you no. But, when you start seeing the real issues that our school district has … To me, this is really a Hail Mary. It is something to control the bleeding. I would rather us provide four days of good instruction than five days of sub-par instruction.”
