Recently, a committee formed at Mingus Union High School District to explore public interest in a possible four-day school week during the 2023-24 school year.
The MUHSD school board is currently conducting a survey to determine the level of community support.
“A school committee was formed during the school year to start studying this and some of the research around it and near the end of the year, they decided they wanted to do, as many [schools] have gone this route, a family survey,” MUHSD Superintendent Mike Westcott said.
“There was an internal staff survey and then a family survey done that’s now gotten about 400 responses,” he said. “We’ll probably leave that open through the month of June.”
Following the survey, Westcott said the committee is planning on looking at the survey results pertaining to “either specific percent responses on some of the questions, and then [they’ll] probably spend a significant amount of time in the fall when staff are back on campus on some of the commentary and some of the concerns that were expressed, or some of the positive comments. I think then, based on some of that information, and additional research we bring to the table, they’ll begin to study whether or not they want to expand the committee and then perhaps make a recommendation to the board later on in the school year, one way or the other,” he added.
Westcott indicated that several districts in the Verde Valley, including Camp Verde Unified and Beaver Creek, have been operating under a four-day week for years.
“It’s been discussed a little bit more at late; I think it’s a response to budgeting and budget constraints at the state level to see if it can be a money-saving approach,” he said. “Research doesn’t necessarily suggest it does a whole lot of that, but there was a big study released in the last year or two by Rand [Corporation], who looked at four-day school weeks and possible pros and cons, so there’s just been a bit of renewed discussion in educational circles about it, and that prompted a lot of it.”
“We have staff members who either have lived [in Camp Verde], or have taught there, that kind of first-hand knowledge is part of what prompted the discussion as well.”
According to the Rand study, “advocates of the four-day school week argue that the shorter week saves money, improves student attendance and helps recruit and retain teachers in rural districts.”
Additionally, “qualitative data supported the view that the model helps attract and retain teachers. Families and students reported highly valuing the extra time that the four-day school week allowed them to spend together, and the data showed that, overall, stakeholders experienced high levels of satisfaction with the four-day school week.”
“However, a comparison of English language arts and math test scores showed that students on the four-day school week have lower scores, over time, when compared with peers on a five-day schedule. Given these mixed findings, communities are likely to make different choices about the four-day school week depending on their goals and the local context.”
Camp Verde Superintendent Steve Hicks’ comments echoed the Rand study regarding the pros-and cons as they relate to his district’s four-day week.
“It depends on who you talk to,” he said. “You’ve got people on both sides and everybody pulls in the data that supports their side and it’s tough; it’s pretty controversial.”
“You still have some people who are saying you need to go back to five-day and you’ve got some that are saying if you go back to [a five-day week] I’m not working here,” he added. “I will say that in general, our staff likes it very much.”
Hicks said that currently, the school does not have any “objective data” showing “whether it has made an improvement in the academics and the learning of the kids.”
“We haven’t seen objective data either way and when we were in the process, as Mingus is, of reviewing it and looking at the data, we found data from both sides and so it’s kind of tough,” he said.
Hicks said that Camp Verde’s main reason for the decision was based on the “staffing and community that were really pushing for the four-day, and really wanting to have that extra longer weekend.”
“We didn’t do it for financial reasons,” he said.
Hicks said that when it came to making the financial assessments, “we didn’t anticipate any loss or gain.”
Regarding cost savings, Hicks said it has “probably helped financially,” but did not provide any specific numbers, however, he said “it has been a real morale-boost for the staff.”
Additionally “we have been able to hire some teachers because of the four-day, or at least in part; that was a big factor in their hiring,” Hicks said.
Hicks discussed some of the challenges, including longer school days and potential scheduling conflicts for parents on Fridays, when their children are out of school.
“When you go from an eight-hour day to a 10-hour day, you have to question the attention span of kids,” he said. “I’m sure with some families [Fridays] are a concern; it hasn’t been a major concern.”
“One thing we did do, and we’ve tried to continue, although it hasn’t always been as easy as we’d hoped, but we’ve had what we call Friday Camps, where we give the opportunity for kids to come to school and to do some activities that they wouldn’t normally get in school [similar to] electives; we would pay a teacher come in and teach guitar or mountain biking or some other opportunities to get kids to learn.”
“It works really well at the elementary,” he said.
Westcott said that for some kids with extracurricular activities, the longer hours could prove challenging.
“You can’t diminish their instructional time, so there’s not much you can do to adjust it,” he said. “Some of those kids end up having to spend a much longer period on campus for a four-day [week] when they’re used to doing a five.”
“It is very common to see districts that have gone in [the four-day] direction do surveys after three, four or five years and typically the results are that folks don’t want to go back; the satisfaction tends to be pretty high.”
