https://www.fox44news.com/news/local-news/mclennan-county/china-spring-isd-adopts-4-day-school-week/


I'm not sure this is going to be a good thing when all is said and done. Especially with potential changes coming to education requirements in the current lege session. I think this was very reactionary on their part.

My SIL is the admin assistant for Superintendent at a Houston Area school and just adopted it. tons of people yelled, but the sup said "we're about to lose teachers. we either do this or don't have enough staff for next year."

i get the pain for parents of young children but this change is coming. not agreeing with it, but it is what it is.

It's a way to save money. If Belton ISD was fully employed, which they are not, they'd be in the red. Quote from new CFO.

This is for China Spring and not Belton ISD though, correct?

I find it sad all these districts are doing this as an attempt to hire teachers with a more lucrative work schedule. When in reality, it's probably to th3 detriment of the students education. Which is why they're supposed to be there in the 1st place.

Oh, and schools won't be saving much money if any at all. They're not paying teachers less to do this.

I have not checked this out myself but I was told that Cameron teachers will still work 2 days fewer than Rockdale and Rockdale went to 4 day weeks. It's all about the minutes.

I vaguely recall reading of some rural Colorado schools that were much earlier adopters to the 4 day week. They saw several compelling reasons to consider the 4 day week: reduction in utilities (electric & water usage down ~15%), significantly decreased absenteeism for both students and teachers (in Texas a way to increase funding), they also cited increased performance on testing. It's been a decade since I saw that… I'll try to find it again.

Of course, in recruiting teachers/staff it's a selling point as well. Some districts are doing half of the Fridays off, with the others as PD or intervention for struggling learners.

Texas legislature is working on policy preventing this and other similar moves, so it may be interesting to watch from afar.

Edit: clearly over time more research has been conducted. Limited effect on attendance, for schools that had at least 32 hours/week no effect on performance. https://journalistsresource.org/education/four-day-school-week-research/