Arlee considering four-day school weeks

Monday night Arlee school officials met with the community for a dialogue about high school and middle school principal Jim Taylor’s proposition to change the Arlee School District five-day week to a four-day week.

After working in the Union School District in Oregon - whose schools operate on a four-day school week - for 10 years, Taylor has been convinced that such a change is in the best interest of the students.

“You have better attendance, test scores are higher and there’s more time spent on tasks,” he said in an interview with the Leader.

He said Fridays can be spent on inservices with teachers, and students can use Fridays for appointments and sports activities, adding that the dropout rate at union was less than 1 percent, with many years of no drop outs.

“I’ve already had six dropouts this year,” he said at the meeting.

With the proposed change, the classes would increase to 59 minute periods, with school starting at 8 a.m. and ending at 3:47 p.m. - an increase of 33 minutes to the day and 2.2 hours a week.

The state public school students in fourth through twelfth grade to receive at least 1,080 hours of “seat time education” every year, and kindergarten through third grade students to receive 770 hours. All grades would start and end school at the same time, for transportation reasons.

Board chair Hank Adams said the board is considering the change for reasons other than money saving.

“I don’t think we’re gonna be saving a lot,” Adams said, adding that the change would give teachers more time with students and not necessarily mean more homework for students, but likely the opposite.

Superintendent John Miller echoed Adams views.

“It’s not about cost for us,” Miller said.

Taylor said 60 percent of school districts in Oregon use a four-day school week, along with Victor and Alberton schools in Montana and Two Eagle River School in Lake County.

Concerns at the meeting included feeding students who are not in the schools Fridays, changes in wages for teachers and athletic activities.

The board may allow students to attend sporting events on Fridays alone, will negotiate wages with teachers and may look to the Montana Food Network to feed students on Fridays who would not be at school with the proposed change.

School cook Karen Hunter said the program sounded good to her, and said she was excited about the food program, which she had never heard of before.

Mother Lisa Mulholland said her daughter is going non-stop all day and said the four-day work week with help with her sports and homework allotments.

“It’s so hard for kids in sports,” Mulholland said. “She’s doing work until midnight.”

Other benefits of a four-day school week include extensive cleaning of facilities, said Miller. Taylor said better moral and Annual Yearly Progress scores also increase with a four-day week.

The board said they would invite staff from Victor to speak at the next and final dialogue - a meeting date and time has not been sent yet. The board hopes to vote on this anywhere from March through April, with potential approval meeting implementation in the 2009 - 2010 school year.

For more information on four-day school weeks visit www.principalspartnership.com.