Schools ask state to permit four-day weeks
Lawmakers take up bill in response to Lyle district’s proposal
Monday, January 26 | 9:32 p.m.
BY HOWARD BUCK
COLUMBIAN STAFF WRITER
Ready for a four-day school week?
Yes, says the tiny Lyle district in the Columbia River Gorge.
In a bid to shave costs and hours spent by rural students and even teachers traveling to classrooms each day, the Lyle district hopes to mimic the success reported by the Custer, S.D., school system, which made the switch back in 1995 and hasn’t looked back.
A new bill sponsored by all three 15th District state legislators would grant local school districts flexibility to adjust schedules and to veer from Washington’s minimum of 180 instructional days.
Under House Bill 1292, which gets a House Education Committee hearing in Olympia today, total student instructional hours would equal those under traditional five-day school calendars, with extended school days.
Rep. Bruce Chandler, R-Granger, said the impact of travel hits hard on rural schools, where athletes often must drive three or four hours to compete with other schools.
HB 1292 would give districts “the tools they need to best serve their students,” Granger said in a news release issued Monday. Sen. Jim Honeyford, R-Sunnyside, who introduced companion Senate Bill 5112, said the issue is one of local control.
“There may be ideas out there that would result in more money being spent in the classroom if the districts had more flexibility,” Honeyford said in the news release.
Washington law allows only limited waivers of the 180-instructional day rule — usually granted after weather emergencies — but not solely “for economy and efficiency” reasons, legislative analysts note.
If adopted, the new legislation would bring Washington in line with at least 17 states, including Oregon.
Lyle school Superintendent Martin Huffman said the 330-student district has studied the model in Custer, and his community backs the switch. The South Dakota district saw student and teacher attendance increase while it saved money, Huffman told his legislators.
Other Southwest Washington districts are taking a wait-and-see approach on Lyle’s push.
The sprawling Battle Ground district, which covers nearly half of Clark County and racks up large busing costs, would need to study the Olympia bill more thoroughly before any comment, said Superintendent Shonny Bria.
Bill Hundley, Stevenson-Carson district superintendent, said a four-day week has not grabbed much interest in his or several other small Columbia River Gorge districts.
“There’s no wildfire. I think I’d like somebody else to try it out first and then tell me what they know,” Hundley said.
Howard Buck: 360-735-4515 or howard.buck@columbian.com.
A fine example for Washington schools sits across the river in the Corbett, Ore., district, perched high above the Columbia just east of Troutdale.
For an 11th year now, Corbett’s 700 students attend school just four days per week.
Thing is, the schedule change hasn’t really saved dollars, said Bob Dunton, Corbett’s 10-year school chief. Bus savings aren’t that big, and student and public use of school buildings on “off days” demands they stay lit and heated, he said.
“As a money-savings strategy, it’s a nonstarter,” Dunton said. “It just sounds cheaper.”
But the academic payoff has been huge, he said.
Many five-day school weeks are truncated by holidays, in-service days, parent-teacher conferences and the like, Dunton noted. Teachers and students perform better on a solid, reliable four-day calendar, he said.
“I know that it matters to teachers, just in being able to plan and execute,” he said. “There’s a consistency, in terms of instruction, that might be pretty powerful.”
Strong enough that both Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report magazines ranked Corbett High School among the top 100 schools in the nation, in their most recent published performance ratings.
Older teens can work jobs on off days and earn college money, Dunton said. Three-day weekends are a big recruiting plus for teachers, and help job retention, he said. It wasn’t hard to transform teacher work days into hours, he said: “We sat down with a pocket calendar and rewrote the contract.”
Corbett schools run about 8 a.m. to 3:40 p.m. Sports teams might lose some daylight hours, but get enough total practice time, Dunton said.
Elementary school students get a longer 40-minute, midmorning snack break to abide by Oregon’s class-time rules. But high school grades thrive on seven class periods of 58 or 59 minutes each.
“My seniors have been doing this since second grade. They’re pretty much used to it,” Dunton said.
“It’s a hard-core high school experience. No mercy. But these guys will do whatever’s asked for four days, then they have a three-day weekend to manage whatever,” he said.
— Howard Buck
by Jerry Brown : 1/27/09 7:58am - Report Abuse
Typical government reaction. When you pinch their precious wallet they respond with the cut that will hurt the most. Cities try to cut fire and police knowing most of the public won't tolerate cuts in basic gov't services. Schools are taking a page out of the same book and at least for grade school parents want to present an untenable option of making one parent stay home the non-school day or figure out how to afford day care one day a week. Employers rightfully won't tolerate that. The parent is supposed to give up and say "please take more taxes from me, I can't stay home from work one day a week and I have to work." This is academic thuggery.How about instead asking teachers to work harder during the less than 9 months a year they work but get paid a yearly salary? One way to do that and not hurt academic achievement is to increase class size. Columnist George Will who has studied and reported on such things says no credible study has shown any correlation between class size and achievement.
Gee, working harder for the same pay equals productivity gains. Isn't that what government including school districts are supposed to strive for? The most bang for our tax buck would be a refreshing goal instead of watching the teacher's unions bully school districts and patrons into giving teachers 20% fewer hours at the same pay. See the sidebar article on Corbett District "As a money-saving strategy it's a nonstarter...It just sounds cheaper." So ask yourself who does gain from the four day week.