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Decision on school 4-day week Tuesday
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| Mike Tremmel, standing left, asks about bus procedures in a four-day week. Business Manager Jim Foley holds the microphone; Lori and Kolin Kramme are in front. (Ainslee S. Wittig/ARN) |
By Ainslee S. Wittig / Arizona Range News
Nearly 60 people - at least half of them school district employees - attended the final public forum last Tuesday to discuss the possibility of a four-day school week at Willcox Schools.
The proposal will be put to a vote Tuesday during the regular school board meeting at 7 p.m. Dec. 1 at the district education office.
The district's three principals briefly discussed benefits and challenges each school would face with a four-day schedule. While most of these have been covered in previous stories, a few additional comments were made.
Willcox High School Principal Linda LaFontain said that with a four-day schedule, enrichment and mediation will be possible during the school day after the regular class schedule is over at about 3:15 p.m. until the bell rings at about 3:30 p.m.
"We have always focused more on remediation, but this will allow us to also focus on enrichment," she said.
Superintendent Dr. Richard Rundhaug said the district returned $60,000 in funds received for tutoring because it is difficult to get students to stay after school hours.
LaFontain said that without half days, there will be "a better routine for learning with fewer interruptions to those classes."
She said that kids are pulled out of classes now because of assemblies, testing, and other reasons, but with the new schedule, "time in class will be sacred. We don't know how, but we're going to (be sure students are not pulled from classes)."
"The longer days can be a problem, especially for younger kids. But we have talked about allowing snacks and drinks in some classrooms without computers for them. And, for those classes that require incremental learning, like math, English as a second language and foreign languages, where we can only take in so much knowledge at a time, we will be using best practices," she said.
For tardies, which LaFontain said are a problem now, "there will be a better way have sanctions against numerous tardies by having the kids make up the time they missed" after 3:15 p.m.
Valerie Simon, elementary school principal, said "having four longer days is exciting to many of my teachers. They can spend more time working one-on-one. Students, especially the youngest ones, may get tired so we may increase breaks and snacks. My school, overall, looks as this as a good thing."
She said a survey of all staff with mailboxes in the WES office, resulted in 39 for the four-day schedule; three against; and one who didn't care. She said there are 65 employees at the school, so there was no response from 22 employees.
Simon said the school will do all they can to use paraprofessionals in any way they are willing to make up for reduced hours that classified employees will expect.
Rundhaug said the district will continue to pay benefits to those employees who receive them currently, even with the reduced hours.
Doris Jones, middle school principal, said the majority of her staff is also in favor, with only "one or two negative comments" from those who responded to a survey (30 for, two against and three no opinion).
She said the biggest challenge she would face is that the middle school shares teachers with the high school, so they must have the same schedule.
"We will just have to have joint team leadership with good communication," Jones said.
Esther Solley, assistant principal at WES and ELL teacher, spoke to attendees about interviews she had with four-day schedule schools with the same demographics, including one in Tucumcari, N.M., and one in Colorado in East Grand District, 80 miles east of Denver.
The K-12 Tucumcari school had 1,033 students in a rural farm community with a population of 5,000 with a Hispanic population of 60 percent, Solley said.
Wayne Ferguson, athletic director and dean of students, said the school has been on a four-day schedule for eight years.
He said they have no trouble scheduling athletics. Students must maintain a 3.5 grade point average to play sports, but because students are not missing Friday's classwork, they "report it is easier to maintain grades. The Friday off allows them to catch up on the homework and submit on the following Monday."
He added, "A good student will work harder to maintain and keep the grade just to play sports."
They also identify "at-risk" students, and they have a program for tutoring for two hours on Friday as the intervention.
Tonja Hedges, the elementary school principal at Tucumcari's PreK-5th grade, said the entire county is on a four-day schedule. Her school operates from 8 a.m. to 3:45 p.m., with one and a half hours of both reading and math scheduled.
"The test scores have literally soared and the reduction of absenteeism was huge," Solley said Hedges told her. "The amount of savings in electricity, gas and diesel fuel was substantial."
Hedges said if intervention is needed in the 80 percent Hispanic populated school, they do not use more than six classrooms and parents are required to deliver the students to school as no buses are running.
Professional days are on Fridays, "maybe two a month," and only in the fall, Hedges told Solley.
Secretary to the superintendent, Sara Berggren, told Solley that the K-12 East Grand District school with 1,410 students, have been on the four-day week since 1982. Professional development helped teachers learn successful strategies for dealing with longer school days, and said there was "slight increase in student achievement."
Berggren told Solley that there was reduced staff and student absences and that daycare was not much of an issue and "concerns disappeared after the first year. Activities were created within the community by the parents."
She added that content was taught in the morning and specials in the afternoon, and kids "seemed to be much more renewed after a three-day weekend."
However, the four-day week has been controversial through the years at East Grand. In 1989-90, a District Accountability Committee (DAC) was charged to investigate the calendar and increase instructional contact time for students. A recommendation to change the Tuesday through Friday schedule to Monday through Thursday was made, but due to issues raised regarding increased coaching hours, decreased rest time for athletes and personal schedules already set, they retained the current schedule. In 1995-96, a calendar committee reviewed the four-day week again, but the committee was so split on the issue, they returned a "splintered recommendation" that could not be agreed upon. No change was made. In 1997-98, the DAC was again called upon to re-evaluate the four-day week. A survey in the spring of 1997 indicated one out of every five respondents mentioned 'school schedule' or 'calendar' as the problem they would solve or change. Most called for a five-day week, but calls for a later starting time were also prominent. The survey also indicated that out of 706 respondents, 44 percent favored a four-day week and 43 percent favored a five-day week. In summary, in a March 1998 report, the four-day week remained a controversial subject within the district.
Southwest Comprehensive Center at WestEd did a report on schools operating on a four-day week in 2007.
Summarized, here are the benefits noted:
Cost benefits mainly from saving on transportation (four days only of bus routes), salaries of contract personnel, food service and utilities.
Increased student and teacher attendance.
Four-day week is a good recruiting tool for new teachers.
As a result of the "free day", athletics participation increases.
Some schools saw improved achievement; some saw no change. None saw decrease in achievement levels. One (Midland, La. Parish) saw failing grades cut in half and GPAs increase considerably the first year of implementing the four-day week.
Negative results (with Willcox response in parentheses):
Teachers must accommodate the longer classes with changed lesson plans to keep students engaged in learning. (Willcox teachers who have attended meetings seem excited about doing this.)
Cost savings for schools adopting four-day week are less than the theoretical 20 percent. In Saratoga, Ark., a district rescinded the four-day week after three years because "monetary savings did not compensate for the loss of classroom time." (Willcox administrators were conservative in cost-savings - estimating only two percent or $150,000, while Bisbee is estimating $500,000 but made the change to four-day for as cost-saving measure.)
Negative impacts on low-income families who must provide for child-care and one day less of free or reduced breakfast and lunch. (Although Rundhaug has said the child care cost should be equal or less than it is now for one full day of care vs. after school five days, Wesleyan preschool, which offers free and reduced breakfasts and lunches, does NOT have an estimate for after school care vs. one-day a week care at this time.)
Limited research shows little or no change in student achievement levels. Also, when a day is missed for some reason, the loss of instructional time is 20 percent more than if the school were on a five-day schedule. (Increased uninterrupted instructional time should increase achievement. Remediation and enhancement after classes should also help students achieve.)
During the meeting, attendees made comments or asked questions.
Mayor Sam Lindsey said, "Turning students loose in this economic time may not be a good idea. Parents must secure daycare or kids are left alone. We need to look at all the savings we can for our community. Have we really thought about child care?"
Rundhaug replied, "Any days off would be built into the normal fee, so families wouldn't see an increase."
However, this is not necessarily true. Christine St. Ores, director of Wesleyan Preschool and Child Care, said Friday that fees for either just one full day of care or one full day plus afternoons, have not been approved by the Wesleyan Preschool Council.
As for older kids being off on Fridays, Rundhaug said the four-day schedule would reduce the most dangerous hours kids are on their own.
"I believe kids are more alert after school and more likely to get into a fight after hanging out with each other all day," he said. They would sleep longer Friday morning, so we are trading off more of the evil than the lesser of the evil hours.
Board President David Collins again made the point that many children need the Friday free or reduced breakfasts and lunches, and wondered if the district has looked at any other ways to offer those meals.
Rundhaug said there may be a way to provide those meals during a Friday intervention if that is done, or it may be possible to offer the meals through another program, "but we don't know until we apply."
Parent Connie Bonner asked if dual bus runs would be possible to limit long days for younger children. Rundhaug said it may be an option in the future, but to do so now would require the district to "eat the cost for a year" as reimbursement from the state takes a year. He suggested using classified staff who would have reduced hours to monitor the buses and make the time more pleasant for the elementary school kids.
Mike Tremmel, parent of a freshman, asked what time his child would have to get on the bus next year - he currently gets on the bus at 6:15 a.m.
The buses would run 25 minutes earlier than at present with the four-day schedule, making his son get on the bus at 5:50 a.m. The earliest riders would be on at 5:40 a.m.
Tremmel was also concerned about sports practices on Fridays and whether buses would be running at least one direction, to or from school. "If I have to bring my son to and from practice, I would have to wait for a three hour practice; and if I go home during practice, it would be over 100 miles for two trips."
Rundhaug said that has not been determined, but he would like to run two buses and maybe some vans.
Dr. E. Richard Singer said, "I feel this is a fait accomplis, and I have no children or grandchildren who will be affected, but I cannot wrap my mind around the assumption that student achievement will be better with less time in school. As it is high school students don't know where Iraq is; they can't fill out an application properly and they only know Beethoven as a dog."
Rundhaug replied, "Less is more if you apply individual interventions during the time allotted. Teachers can target specific students with specific problems, and we have more time during the school day (after 3:15 p.m.) and we can also use Friday to do that."
Singer asked how the district would measure academic achievement in this situation, and Rundhaug replied that they would use "immediate indications such as attendance, graduation rate and grade point averages," rather than the slower to arrive AIMS, SAT and ACT tests.
Singer also questioned why "everything was in a state of flux and you will be working it out as you go along" instead of solving the problems beforehand.
"It is time consuming to solve the issues before we know if we have to. Instead we have looked at other models of school districts to see how they have worked out those issues," Rundhaug said.
High School Teacher Shirley Ortega said, "With the state's budget cuts coming, the four-day school week will save some money and it doesn't appear the students would suffer. It's a way to save money without harming the students."
Rob Jones, district special services director, said, "We need to take this progressive step and see what happens with this."
Kim McRae, an alternative school teacher at the high school, said, "It was quoted in the newspaper that the teachers want this because they get a day off. If I want this it is because it is good for the students. If I can be fresher in class because I haven't been up all weekend grading papers, it's good for the students."
Elementary school teacher Kathy Engleton said she has taught four and five day schedules and "the longer day seems so exciting. I have 32 students in a class - eight more than last year, and that extra time will give me a chance to be with two more reading groups" each day.
Parent Debbie Sunderland said she does not understand how the added 29 minutes per each of the four days adds more than the time for five days. "Five and a half hours are eliminated each week. We are a Performing Plus school now. How'd we get there? Not by the four-day school week!"
Rundhaug replied, "Seat time doesn't equate to enhanced academics."
Finally, after the meeting, Kitchen Manager Debbie Whelan questioned Business Manager Jim Foley and Rundhaug about her own hours and benefits, as well as those of other kitchen staff members.
Rundhaug replied that her benefits - and those of all classified employees with benefits now that have reduced hours due to the four-day week -- will remain as they are currently, but she may have reduced hours, which she may be able to make up in other ways if she is willing (examples include monitoring buses or taking tickets at sporting events).
But Rundhaug and Foley added that while Whelan and one other kitchen staff member will retain their benefits, the rest of the staff, whom are Sodexho employees contracted by the district (instead of district employees), may lose their benefits from Sodexho due to the loss in hours.
The proposal will be put to a vote Tuesday during the regular school board meeting at 7 p.m. Dec. 1 at the district education office.
The district's three principals briefly discussed benefits and challenges each school would face with a four-day schedule. While most of these have been covered in previous stories, a few additional comments were made.
Willcox High School Principal Linda LaFontain said that with a four-day schedule, enrichment and mediation will be possible during the school day after the regular class schedule is over at about 3:15 p.m. until the bell rings at about 3:30 p.m.
"We have always focused more on remediation, but this will allow us to also focus on enrichment," she said.
Superintendent Dr. Richard Rundhaug said the district returned $60,000 in funds received for tutoring because it is difficult to get students to stay after school hours.
LaFontain said that without half days, there will be "a better routine for learning with fewer interruptions to those classes."
She said that kids are pulled out of classes now because of assemblies, testing, and other reasons, but with the new schedule, "time in class will be sacred. We don't know how, but we're going to (be sure students are not pulled from classes)."
"The longer days can be a problem, especially for younger kids. But we have talked about allowing snacks and drinks in some classrooms without computers for them. And, for those classes that require incremental learning, like math, English as a second language and foreign languages, where we can only take in so much knowledge at a time, we will be using best practices," she said.
For tardies, which LaFontain said are a problem now, "there will be a better way have sanctions against numerous tardies by having the kids make up the time they missed" after 3:15 p.m.
Valerie Simon, elementary school principal, said "having four longer days is exciting to many of my teachers. They can spend more time working one-on-one. Students, especially the youngest ones, may get tired so we may increase breaks and snacks. My school, overall, looks as this as a good thing."
She said a survey of all staff with mailboxes in the WES office, resulted in 39 for the four-day schedule; three against; and one who didn't care. She said there are 65 employees at the school, so there was no response from 22 employees.
Simon said the school will do all they can to use paraprofessionals in any way they are willing to make up for reduced hours that classified employees will expect.
Rundhaug said the district will continue to pay benefits to those employees who receive them currently, even with the reduced hours.
Doris Jones, middle school principal, said the majority of her staff is also in favor, with only "one or two negative comments" from those who responded to a survey (30 for, two against and three no opinion).
She said the biggest challenge she would face is that the middle school shares teachers with the high school, so they must have the same schedule.
"We will just have to have joint team leadership with good communication," Jones said.
Esther Solley, assistant principal at WES and ELL teacher, spoke to attendees about interviews she had with four-day schedule schools with the same demographics, including one in Tucumcari, N.M., and one in Colorado in East Grand District, 80 miles east of Denver.
The K-12 Tucumcari school had 1,033 students in a rural farm community with a population of 5,000 with a Hispanic population of 60 percent, Solley said.
Wayne Ferguson, athletic director and dean of students, said the school has been on a four-day schedule for eight years.
He said they have no trouble scheduling athletics. Students must maintain a 3.5 grade point average to play sports, but because students are not missing Friday's classwork, they "report it is easier to maintain grades. The Friday off allows them to catch up on the homework and submit on the following Monday."
He added, "A good student will work harder to maintain and keep the grade just to play sports."
They also identify "at-risk" students, and they have a program for tutoring for two hours on Friday as the intervention.
Tonja Hedges, the elementary school principal at Tucumcari's PreK-5th grade, said the entire county is on a four-day schedule. Her school operates from 8 a.m. to 3:45 p.m., with one and a half hours of both reading and math scheduled.
"The test scores have literally soared and the reduction of absenteeism was huge," Solley said Hedges told her. "The amount of savings in electricity, gas and diesel fuel was substantial."
Hedges said if intervention is needed in the 80 percent Hispanic populated school, they do not use more than six classrooms and parents are required to deliver the students to school as no buses are running.
Professional days are on Fridays, "maybe two a month," and only in the fall, Hedges told Solley.
Secretary to the superintendent, Sara Berggren, told Solley that the K-12 East Grand District school with 1,410 students, have been on the four-day week since 1982. Professional development helped teachers learn successful strategies for dealing with longer school days, and said there was "slight increase in student achievement."
Berggren told Solley that there was reduced staff and student absences and that daycare was not much of an issue and "concerns disappeared after the first year. Activities were created within the community by the parents."
She added that content was taught in the morning and specials in the afternoon, and kids "seemed to be much more renewed after a three-day weekend."
However, the four-day week has been controversial through the years at East Grand. In 1989-90, a District Accountability Committee (DAC) was charged to investigate the calendar and increase instructional contact time for students. A recommendation to change the Tuesday through Friday schedule to Monday through Thursday was made, but due to issues raised regarding increased coaching hours, decreased rest time for athletes and personal schedules already set, they retained the current schedule. In 1995-96, a calendar committee reviewed the four-day week again, but the committee was so split on the issue, they returned a "splintered recommendation" that could not be agreed upon. No change was made. In 1997-98, the DAC was again called upon to re-evaluate the four-day week. A survey in the spring of 1997 indicated one out of every five respondents mentioned 'school schedule' or 'calendar' as the problem they would solve or change. Most called for a five-day week, but calls for a later starting time were also prominent. The survey also indicated that out of 706 respondents, 44 percent favored a four-day week and 43 percent favored a five-day week. In summary, in a March 1998 report, the four-day week remained a controversial subject within the district.
Southwest Comprehensive Center at WestEd did a report on schools operating on a four-day week in 2007.
Summarized, here are the benefits noted:
Negative results (with Willcox response in parentheses):
During the meeting, attendees made comments or asked questions.
Mayor Sam Lindsey said, "Turning students loose in this economic time may not be a good idea. Parents must secure daycare or kids are left alone. We need to look at all the savings we can for our community. Have we really thought about child care?"
Rundhaug replied, "Any days off would be built into the normal fee, so families wouldn't see an increase."
However, this is not necessarily true. Christine St. Ores, director of Wesleyan Preschool and Child Care, said Friday that fees for either just one full day of care or one full day plus afternoons, have not been approved by the Wesleyan Preschool Council.
As for older kids being off on Fridays, Rundhaug said the four-day schedule would reduce the most dangerous hours kids are on their own.
"I believe kids are more alert after school and more likely to get into a fight after hanging out with each other all day," he said. They would sleep longer Friday morning, so we are trading off more of the evil than the lesser of the evil hours.
Board President David Collins again made the point that many children need the Friday free or reduced breakfasts and lunches, and wondered if the district has looked at any other ways to offer those meals.
Rundhaug said there may be a way to provide those meals during a Friday intervention if that is done, or it may be possible to offer the meals through another program, "but we don't know until we apply."
Parent Connie Bonner asked if dual bus runs would be possible to limit long days for younger children. Rundhaug said it may be an option in the future, but to do so now would require the district to "eat the cost for a year" as reimbursement from the state takes a year. He suggested using classified staff who would have reduced hours to monitor the buses and make the time more pleasant for the elementary school kids.
Mike Tremmel, parent of a freshman, asked what time his child would have to get on the bus next year - he currently gets on the bus at 6:15 a.m.
The buses would run 25 minutes earlier than at present with the four-day schedule, making his son get on the bus at 5:50 a.m. The earliest riders would be on at 5:40 a.m.
Tremmel was also concerned about sports practices on Fridays and whether buses would be running at least one direction, to or from school. "If I have to bring my son to and from practice, I would have to wait for a three hour practice; and if I go home during practice, it would be over 100 miles for two trips."
Rundhaug said that has not been determined, but he would like to run two buses and maybe some vans.
Dr. E. Richard Singer said, "I feel this is a fait accomplis, and I have no children or grandchildren who will be affected, but I cannot wrap my mind around the assumption that student achievement will be better with less time in school. As it is high school students don't know where Iraq is; they can't fill out an application properly and they only know Beethoven as a dog."
Rundhaug replied, "Less is more if you apply individual interventions during the time allotted. Teachers can target specific students with specific problems, and we have more time during the school day (after 3:15 p.m.) and we can also use Friday to do that."
Singer asked how the district would measure academic achievement in this situation, and Rundhaug replied that they would use "immediate indications such as attendance, graduation rate and grade point averages," rather than the slower to arrive AIMS, SAT and ACT tests.
Singer also questioned why "everything was in a state of flux and you will be working it out as you go along" instead of solving the problems beforehand.
"It is time consuming to solve the issues before we know if we have to. Instead we have looked at other models of school districts to see how they have worked out those issues," Rundhaug said.
High School Teacher Shirley Ortega said, "With the state's budget cuts coming, the four-day school week will save some money and it doesn't appear the students would suffer. It's a way to save money without harming the students."
Rob Jones, district special services director, said, "We need to take this progressive step and see what happens with this."
Kim McRae, an alternative school teacher at the high school, said, "It was quoted in the newspaper that the teachers want this because they get a day off. If I want this it is because it is good for the students. If I can be fresher in class because I haven't been up all weekend grading papers, it's good for the students."
Elementary school teacher Kathy Engleton said she has taught four and five day schedules and "the longer day seems so exciting. I have 32 students in a class - eight more than last year, and that extra time will give me a chance to be with two more reading groups" each day.
Parent Debbie Sunderland said she does not understand how the added 29 minutes per each of the four days adds more than the time for five days. "Five and a half hours are eliminated each week. We are a Performing Plus school now. How'd we get there? Not by the four-day school week!"
Rundhaug replied, "Seat time doesn't equate to enhanced academics."
Finally, after the meeting, Kitchen Manager Debbie Whelan questioned Business Manager Jim Foley and Rundhaug about her own hours and benefits, as well as those of other kitchen staff members.
Rundhaug replied that her benefits - and those of all classified employees with benefits now that have reduced hours due to the four-day week -- will remain as they are currently, but she may have reduced hours, which she may be able to make up in other ways if she is willing (examples include monitoring buses or taking tickets at sporting events).
But Rundhaug and Foley added that while Whelan and one other kitchen staff member will retain their benefits, the rest of the staff, whom are Sodexho employees contracted by the district (instead of district employees), may lose their benefits from Sodexho due to the loss in hours.
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The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the view of willcoxrangenews.com.
Jed wrote on Dec 2, 2009 10:22 AM:
" Bud, you write as you had first hand knowledge of the "1 day a week" school system. You made it clear that the "4 day a week" school system would hurt our youth. "
WayofTheFuture wrote on Dec 2, 2009 12:54 PM:
" What a low opinion you have of today's youth, "bud". It's people like you who steal the drive out of these kids which in turn makes them lazy.
You need to encourage the youth, not call them dumb and lazy.
I hope you don't have children and if you do, I pray you don't think of them in this light. "
You need to encourage the youth, not call them dumb and lazy.
I hope you don't have children and if you do, I pray you don't think of them in this light. "
bud wrote on Nov 28, 2009 6:56 AM: