WARREN COUNTY, Mo. — Jeanitta Dildine wasn’t looking for a new job when a principal from the Warren County School District came calling.
He used a strategy a growing number of cash-strapped school districts are using to get her attention.
“He definitely used the four-day work week as a bargaining chip,” the elementary school teacher recalled. “And it worked.”
School is only in session in Warren County four days a week. Dildine has been teaching there for two years, after leaving her job of 15 years in another district just one county away.
“To have an extra day, whether it be with our family, for self-care for those mental breaks from teaching, or whether we use that day to plan for our classroom and to enhance all of our learning experiences that we have planned for that week, that extra day to our weekend is absolutely priceless,” Dildine said.
That’s exactly what Warren County Superintendent Greg Klinginsmith intended when four-day weeks started five years ago.
“One of our big issues that we had was teacher retention, we were losing 25% of our teachers, 20% to 25% of our teachers every year, and that's just not sustainable,” he said. “Now, we're ranging about 13% to 18%.”
Even though the four-day week works for teacher recruitment and retention, the I-Team wanted to know how a four-day week affects academics, budgets and discipline, as well as whether any districts have ever tried it and returned to five-day weeks.
The I-Team found 180 – or about a third of all Missouri school districts – now operate on four-day week schedules. Only two have returned to five-day schedules.
Legislation passed in 2011 allowed Missouri school districts to move to four-day weeks as long as they maintain 1,044 hours of classroom instruction each year.
Warren County adds an extra half hour onto every day and two weeks into the summer.
“Everyone has to go the same number of hours, so your academic achievement stays about the same,” Klinginsmith said.
Does discipline decline?
Klinginsmith said his district has seen a reduction in disciplinary issues while school is in session.
“I think about four days is about as much anybody can take each other,” he quipped.
There isn’t a lot of research on whether juvenile crime rises in communities with four-day districts, according to University of Missouri Associate Professor Jon Turner. He has studied districts that switch to four-day school weeks, and he said most of them are in rural areas.
A lot of the four-day districts also border states where minimum teacher pay is $50,000 – that’s twice what Missouri’s minimum salary is.
“The four-day week is a symptom of those challenges, it is not something that people say, ‘This is what’s best,' this is the only response they have to keep and retain teachers as long as we can’t be competitive on salary,” Turner said.
A bill currently pending in the legislature would boost minimum pay for Missouri teachers to $40,000.
It also contains a provision spearheaded by Sen. Doug Beck (R-Affton) that would require school districts with more than 30,000 students to get voter approval to go to four-day school weeks.
Turner says Beck’s proposal takes the decision out of the school board members, who are elected to make decisions for the district.
“It would be just like a tax increase,” Beck said. “The school board has to decide to get the tax increase, and then they have to go to the voters to get it.”
Beck’s proposal also incentivizes districts to keep five-day schedules by giving them more state aide – which could translate to “well over $1,000 a year for teachers,” Beck said.
“Each district will be different, depending on how much state aide you get,” Beck said.
He said he believes students should spend as much time in school with teachers as possible, and four-day weeks take away from that.
“I would love to see us going more days a year and everything else,” he said. “And maybe that down the road, that is something we can do on other legislation.”
Beck also noted Missouri is facing a childcare crisis – an issue the I-Team has covered - and finding child care for families with children who have special needs can be especially challenging.
Turner agreed and added his research has also shown one day away from school can also be hard on children who depend on school nurses for healthcare as well as families with very young children that need childcare.
“I don’t want to make it all rosy here,” Turner said.
Does it save money?
The Fox C-6 School District in Jefferson County is now considering the idea. It has a more than $100 million budget.
Klinginsmith said switching to four-day weeks saved his district only about 1% of its annual operating budget, or about $300,000.
“They could easily save a million dollars or more on this model,” Klinginsmith said of Fox.
Some districts that have switched to four-day weeks like the Independence School District have programming on their fifth weekdays instead of classes. Independence charges parents $30 a day. Care Days, as their known in Warren County, are free as are most that the four-day districts Turner has studied.
“Some districts plan art club trips and visit science museums,” Turner said, adding some college campuses have tailored visiting days for high school students who attend four-day districts. “It can still be utilized in engaging manner, and some districts are really engaging in some innovative stuff.”
Adam Lawler has three children younger than 10 in the Warren County School District.
“My wife and I were a little skeptical when they introduced the four-day week,” Lawler said.
Now, it’s become a convenience, as Mondays are the most common holidays in which they are often off work anyway, and they can schedule doctor’s appointments and other typical week-day errands.
They haven’t used Warren County’s Care Day programs, instead taking advantage of a program at Wesleyan Katie College that sprung up specifically for parents looking for faith-based care in the district.
Klinginsmith expected Care Days to be much more widely attended than they are. Of the district’s approximately 3,000 students, only 80 to 100 kids show up for Monday programming.
“We have a lot of STEM activities, so science, technology, engineering and math,” Klinginsmith said.
Dildine has three children of her own, younger than 12. She doesn’t think anyone would support going back to a five-day schedule if Beck’s legislation is approved.
“From the parents that I have come into contact with in the community, nobody is interested in going back to a five-day week, they all have developed a lifestyle that is conducive to the four-day school week,” she said.
Editor's note: An earlier version of this story contained an inaccurate description of Jeanitta Dildine's salary. It has been corrected.
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