Students in the Watts, Okla., School District will have Fridays off this school year.
The school district is going to a four-day school week when school resumes on Aug. 6, according to Superintendent Lisa Weaver.
The small school, which has 350 students in grades pre-kindergarten through 12, initially made the decision to attract and keep teachers as well as to improve attendance and encourage students to work harder, Weaver said. Possible financial savings from a reduction in transportation and utility costs is just an added bonus.
Oklahoma law requires schools to have 1,080 hours or 175 school days, said Phil Bacharach, communications director for the Oklahoma State Department of Education.
Students in Watts will go 40 minutes longer each day, starting at 8 a.m. and dismissing at 3:55 p.m, to meet the state requirements. They will also go to school for one week longer in May, Weaver said. Professional development days will be held on Friday instead of cutting into instructional time and teachers will have to work about one Friday each month, she said.
Attracting teachers is tough, especially on the Arkansas-Oklahoma line where higher paying jobs in Arkansas are just a few miles away. In years past, the school would have 100 applicants for each opening and now they only receive a handful, Weaver said.
"All schools in Oklahoma have been hit hard," she said.
The average starting salary for a first year teacher in the Watts School District is $31,600, in accordance with the Oklahoma minimum teacher salary schedule. In comparison, first year teachers are paid $35,330 in Gentry, $39,500 in Siloam Springs and $46,816 in Springdale.
Weaver said she has heard from superintendents of other districts that have implemented a four-day week that student attendance is better and students have a better attitude about working hard on their school work.
Weaver hopes to see financial savings from the schedule change from cuts in transportation and utility costs. She is also hopeful that substitute teacher costs will be reduced because teachers will need to take less time off work. However, Weaver emphasized that the financial savings were not the reason for the decision to shorten the school week.
"Of course, if we can save money -- we're not a rich district by any means," she said.
Several school board members, who had family members working in other districts with a four-day week, initially came up with the idea, Weaver said.
The district sent out surveys to parents, called parents on the phone and held a community meeting. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, Weaver said. Some parents commented that their employers offered a four-day work week, which resulted in less absenteeism and better production.
"A lot of it is mental effect," Weaver said. "(People think) 'I'll give it all I've got for four days because I have Friday off.'"
One or two people who responded to surveys were concerned about childcare on Friday but more people commented that they preferred the consistency of students getting out of school later in the day, Weaver said.
"They get off work at 4:30 or 5 p.m. and don't have to worry about finding a babysitter every day of the week," she said.
Weaver said the school is working with several different organizations to see about the possibility of a community program for children on Fridays.
The majority of students are pretty excited about the prospect of having Fridays off, Weaver said.
"There are a few that say 'But I'll miss my friends on Friday,'" she said.
Weaver was initially concerned about the effects of a longer school day on the youngest students, but taking snacks and breaks into consideration 40 minutes is not too much of an add on, she said.
Watts is far from alone in their decision to shorten their school week. A total of 70 individual schools and 35 districts in Oklahoma have a four-day school week in the fall of 2014, according to data provided by the Department of Education. Data on how many schools are starting a four-day week this year is not available, Bacharach said.
Locally, Locust Grove, Okla., Schools are starting a four-day school week, according to the district's website. Students will have Mondays off from school instead of Friday. They will also begin school at 8 a.m. and dismiss at 3:55 p.m., the school calendar states.
Reasons that Oklahoma School Districts opt for a four-day week run the gamut, Bacharach said.
"I would certainly defer to the superintendent of that district," he said.
He speculated that tight budgets may be a factor. Oklahoma k-12 education funding was held flat this year despite a steady increase in enrollment, he said.
"Even with a flat budget, we're seeing less funds than are wholly necessary statewide," Bacharach said.
Local school districts are dealing with the cut in funding in a number of ways and a four-day school week is just one possibility at their disposal, he said.
Arkansas law also allows schools to opt for a four-day school week, according to Jody Wiggins, assistant superintendent of the Siloam Springs School District.
"We have never given it serious consideration," he said.
General News on 08/02/2015