The South Central Calhoun Community School District (SCC) school board permitted the administration to collect data to support the possibility of a four-day instructional week for students. While still in the preliminary discussion, the board and administration are exploring the option to see if it fits the district and the community. Superintendent Brad Anderson says a number of reasons prompted the idea of the change, including teacher retention and recruitment, enhanced student engagement, increased time for learning and personal development, and much more.
The district has currently sent out a survey to staff members to see if there would be support behind the alternative instruction and ideas on how they would like to see it implemented. Anderson says approximately two-thirds of staff participated in the survey, with around 72 percent in favor of a four-day school week, but concerns were brought up.
The district is required by the state to have students attend 1,080 hours minimum per school year. By taking away an instructional day, SCC would either have to extend the length of each school day or extend the school year to meet the minimum requirement. Anderson says the fifth day could be utilized for additional teacher prep and various other services provided by the district without needing to use instructional hours.
Anderson says the admin plans to talk to other districts that have implemented the four-day school week to better understand what has worked and maybe some of the struggles that were seen. With a staff survey complete, community members will have a chance to voice their opinions and concerns within the next few weeks.
Anderson emphasizes that this discussion is all very preliminary, and options are being explored now. Any district resident with comments or concerns is welcome to attend any of the school board meetings to hear the discussions and voice opinions, whether for or against. Anderson says if the board decides to proceed further into implementing an alternative instructional week, additional meetings will be scheduled later.
