School board members weigh in on potential new calendar ahead of presentation

Come Jan. 27, Moffat County School District could be seeking in advance to a new form of faculty 7 days.

The district’s calendar committee is set to think about restructuring the university calendar — pending school board acceptance — and that could contain a 4-working day school week.

Faculty board member Krystal Fedinec wrote in a statement to the Craig Push that she has mentioned the risk with different stakeholders — this sort of as educators and mom and dad — about the concerns that would occur if the calendar should adopt a new structure. Fedinec, who signifies the county at-substantial, emphasized that it would choose function to make guaranteed that all of the worries are taken care of, but she explained she however supports the changeover to a four-working day school week.

Particularly, Fedinec reported that the change could end result in a economic advantage for the school’s spending budget and much more time for personnel education, staff constructing and collaboration.

“As for problems, I definitely have only read a several, and they all offer with childcare, lengthening the school day and lengthening the faculty yr. Childcare is the largest 1 I listen to, although,” Fedinec wrote. “This is something that all moms and dads deal with on summer time crack, vacation breaks, spring split and the times that we have experienced to have college students off due to other good reasons. We do have selections in the neighborhood to aid with this concern like the Boys and Women Club.”

Fedinec pointed out that the notion is hardly novel to the region.

“Most of our surrounding districts are on a 4-day 7 days, so we have the profit of looking at what has labored and what has not,” she wrote. “There will often be some great and some negative that arrives with modify, we have to weigh out what’s ideal for our district at this time.”

In current months, the committee has sent out questionnaires about what modifications moms and dads, academics and other local community customers would be open to viewing, and what modifications could potentially trigger troubles. Responses has proven some local community members really feel strongly about the pressure four-day university weeks could trigger on parents getting childcare.

Among the the concerns the calendar committee requested was the public’s view about going to an overall 4-day week. In one solution, the committee asks how supportive survey takers are about obtaining just one particular Friday off per thirty day period for learners, with the relaxation of the weeks remaining five days for every 7 days. Yet another selection is acquiring learners not show up at on Fridays while staff members have 50 {22377624ce51d186a25e6affb44d268990bf1c3186702884c333505e71f176b1} of the Fridays as qualified progress times and are not demanded to do the job on the other Fridays.

Other customers of the board are ready till the calendar committee’s presentation before deciding what could perform for the district in yrs to arrive. Board Secretary Cindy Looper said that she is open-minded to the transform, but she is concentrated on how it would impact college student advancement. Customers Lynne Seely and Heather Cannon advised the Craig Press they are arranging on reaching out to far more educators and mom and dad ahead of the committee’s presentation later this month.

Proper now, Moffat County and Steamboat Springs school districts are the only districts in the place that are nonetheless running five days for every 7 days. Hayden, Baggs and Meeker, which all work on four-working day weeks, all are also accepted to show up at school less than 160 days. Maybell Elementary, which is component of MCSD, also operates four times per 7 days, with Friday becoming a experienced improvement working day.

Throughout the condition of Colorado, 116 college districts are permitted to provide fewer than 160 days all through their university many years. Though their schedules and calendars vary, all of them still deliver the exact same amount of tutorial hours that five-working day school schedules do. Colorado regulation needs that learners receive a selected volume of “contact time,” and universities change calendars to fulfill that need — 1,080 several hours for every 12 months of tutorial time for secondary educational institutions and 990 instructional hrs for elementary colleges.

According to the Colorado Department of Education’s 4-Day University 7 days Information and facts Guide, that accounts for 65{22377624ce51d186a25e6affb44d268990bf1c3186702884c333505e71f176b1} of the state’s 178 university districts. Numerous of them are rural, but in latest a long time, far more city districts are opting for using on the adjust as a recruitment resource. School District 27J in Adams County — which includes much more than 18,000 college students and covers colleges in pieces of Aurora, Brighton, Commerce City, Lochbuie and Thornton — produced the switch in 2018 to retain its academics.

University board member JoBeth Tupa claimed that although acquiring a four-day week could be useful for recruitment for instructors (specifically given that other educational facilities in the location previously operate four times for each week), hourly staff need to however be regarded. Heading down a day could necessarily mean influencing the positive aspects or pay back that they rely on. Chopping fees should really not be on the backs of some of the most affordable-paid out staff, Tupa reported.

“Now, as we revisit it, it is doable we could appear at changing our income routine and added benefits for anyone, but I’m not absolutely sure what (the committee) will existing,” she reported. “We’re one of the couple of districts in the region that nonetheless are on a 5-day school timetable, so occasionally it is tougher to recruit in that way. But the calendar committee has arrive alongside one another now to tackle it. In the stop, it has to be what’s beneficial for kids, but (the calendar committee) is also on the lookout at a number of different products.”

MCSD — like numerous educational facilities throughout the nation — is going through staff members shortages, which includes in guidance positions like bus drivers and lunch personnel. Teachers, increased administrators and even school board associates have stepped up to fill in on some of individuals roles, but that is not likely to be a sustainable model for covering people positions. Quite a few of those assist staff members customers drop below that hourly wage classification.

In 2011, Dianne L. Lefly, CDE Investigation and Analysis, and Jhon Penn, CDE Area Providers, completed a review evaluating how pupils react and study in 5-working day and four-day months.

In the study, Penn and Lefly specially examine college districts of identical dimension in Colorado and how they done on selected statewide assessments. In most instances, there was minor to no difference in between schools with 5 days per week and 4. The analyze reveals that, for districts with college student populations amongst 601 and 1,200 small children, elementary college students in 5-working day constructions had 63.7{22377624ce51d186a25e6affb44d268990bf1c3186702884c333505e71f176b1} math proficiency and 4-day pupils had 69.1{22377624ce51d186a25e6affb44d268990bf1c3186702884c333505e71f176b1}. For higher college, the two were in one share issue of each individual other, and middle college learners scored in four share details.

Reading scores mirrored very similar success when comparing schools of similar sizing.

“Overall, there appears to be tiny change concerning 4 and five working day weeks in conditions of position as mirrored in {22377624ce51d186a25e6affb44d268990bf1c3186702884c333505e71f176b1} proficient and sophisticated no matter of written content place,” the study’s summary reads. “There also appears to be minimal crystal clear variation in terms of median growth percentiles in both information area.”

This isn’t the 1st time that the thought of a 4-working day university week has been introduced up.

In 2015, talks of a new calendar circulated between MCSD neighborhood members. Then, all over again, in February of 2017, the MCSD faculty board brought up the alter as a likelihood for funding $17 million in cash initiatives, according to former reporting from the Craig Press. By April of 2017, that solution was off the desk for the reason that of then-board members’ worries of how it would impact hourly team and the likely to check out other solutions to fund money projects. In 2021, the board went to voters to request for a mill levy raise to aid fund about $40 million in building repairs, but Moffat County voters turned down the bond evaluate.

For the duration of election period, discussion amongst then-candidates for MCSD university board of most likely bringing a new calendar was a single of the very hot subjects. Quite a few candidates, together with some who had been elected, stated then that they were being open to the possibility, but that they would will need to do more investigation right before generating a sound selection.