It’s greener and better for student achievement, but how are parents taking a shift to four-day school weeks?

The Oakridge School District in Oregon is about to find out – they’re making the switch for all thirteen grades in an effort not to help cut costs (although it certainly could help) as enrollment continues to decline but to improve improve academic achievement 

Donald Kordosky, the superintendent of the Oakridge School, told NPR that the studies his district looked at showed the four-day school week increases student and teacher attendance, including a reduction in staff turnover. Staff morale is upped, and kids’ academic progress is improved.

So how will they do it? They’ll extend the school day for one – although not massively. Kids are currently attending from  8:15 a.m. to 3:15 p.m., and they’ll soon spend from 8 a.m. to 3:36 p.m. in a classroom. They’ll also rework the current holidays – taking days when the kids might have three days off because of superintendent’s conference days or a holiday and enforcing a strict four-days-a-week policy. 

The big question – what are parents supposed to do with their kids on Friday? Especially in this economy?

Surprisingly, Kordosky says parents are more supportive of this plan because it will make it EASIER to find daycare. The regularity of the four-day-a-week system will mean parents have just one day every week to find a sitter. Otherwise, there are weeks where they face two days with no school and no sitter or three days or . . . Out of thirty-eight weeks, there are only twenty-one weeks in which there is school on all five days. 

The school is also putting its junior and senior high students through childcare training and CPR courses to step in as babysitters either to younger siblings or to neighborhood kids – the training will make them more employable. 

Beyond the benefits for kids, four-day weeks are potentially better for the environment. One day less of buses running and emitting diesel fumes, one day less of lights being turned on (running classes slightly later in the day takes advantage of daylight to reduce energy consumption) are supposedly greener – or at least more energy efficient for a school district. Some argue that the green benefits of a four-day work week, for example, are a wash when you consider workers use that extra day to drive around on errands or to turn on lights in their own homes. At the very least, it’s saving money for the taxing entities – like school districts – who are, in turn, putting less of a burden on taxpayers (parents).

How would you feel if your school district made this kind of switch?  

Image: Oakridge Elementary

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• They Say: U.S. Toilet Paper Usage Worse for the Environment than Driving a Hummer?!

• When Should the School Call the Parents?

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