A bill that would allow school districts to apply for a three-year pilot program to try out a four-day school week cleared its first hurdle in the Alaska House of Representatives Monday, with the House Education Committee advancing the legislation after hearing public comment last Friday and Monday morning.
House Bill 21, which was introduced by Reps. Peggy Wilson, R-Wrangell, and Tammie Wilson, R-North Pole, was moved to the House Finance Committee, its second and final committee of referral.
The bill was drafted in response to the Southeast Island School District’s unsuccessful application last year to Alaska Department of Education and Early Development Commissioner Mike Hanley for a schedule allowing a four-day school week.
Hanley testified Monday that the application was rejected because SISD Superintendent Lauren Burch did not provide a detailed proposal, which the district has prepared this year.
“If what had been put before us now had been submitted previously, the conversation would have been a whole lot different,” Hanley said.
Asked by Rep. Dan Saddler, R-Eagle River, how he feels about alternative schedules like the four-day school week — which is used by rural school districts in several other states — Hanley said he is open to them, provided they are able to show there is no decline in the level of education they provide.
“I’m surely open to the flexibility of a four-day week,” said Hanley.
Peggy Wilson said before the committee adopted a motion by Rep. Paul Seaton, R-Homer, to advance H.B. 21 that the sponsors were preparing changes to the bill in response to feedback and concerns raised Friday and over the weekend.
After the meeting ended, Peggy Wilson detailed some of those changes.
One of the most major changes would transfer authority to approve the pilot program from the Alaska Board of Education to the commissioner, who already has authority to approve an alternative schedule if a district can prove it will be beneficial for students’ educational attainment.
Hanley expressed concern during the meeting that if that power resided in the Board of Education, “I think the process would be slightly more cumbersome.”
Another change would open up the pilot program to more than one school district, a change urged by Rep. Pete Higgins, R-Fairbanks, during Friday’s meeting.
“We’re just going to open up to anybody, and then the commissioner, you know, he will probably keep that down to two or three,” said Wilson.
Wilson said she believes Hanley has moderated his position on allowing a four-day school week.
“I think that he is a little more willing to work with schools now to do that,” Wilson said. “I think we’ll have cooperation from him now.”
Under the forthcoming version of the bill, the stringent requirement for a school district in the pilot program to submit quarterly reports to the state will be done away with, leaving only an annual reporting requirement. Wilson said that is more reasonable, considering not all schools have quarterly testing.
School districts will also need majority support from within the community to adopt a four-day school week, according to Wilson.
The changes in H.B. 21 will be included in a committee substitute for the bill, which the House Finance Committee can choose whether or not to hear, Wilson added.
• Contact reporter Mark D. Miller at 586-1821 or at mark.d.miller@juneauempire.com.
Comments (15)
Add commentif you don't want to work 5 days a week
I guess you can just tell your employer and they'll cater to you with whatever work week you want.
Are you preparing kids for a life of successful work or failure by expecting to be catered to under any conditions?
Not sure about this
So, in four days our children can get a better education than in five days? Hope they listen to parents this time.
consider these issues
in many small village schools on any give Friday a majority of the students are away for some sport. That requires teachers traveling and leaves the rest of the students, if any, left with some alternative teacher. Perhaps the four day week with no away from school activies on those four days is a real alternativr to consider.
Some kind of stupid ...
I guess the windows on the ivory tower of our education system must be fogged up. Do these people really not know that in most families, both parents must work just to pay the bills? (That's if there are two parents ... in many cases there aren't) So which parent gets to lose their job to take care of the kids during the week, and what kind of learning environment will the kids have while living out of their car? And these are the people who are teaching our children?
One of the problems is the
One of the problems is the "no child left behind" crud. Teachers have no choice but to prepare kids for the next required test/exam, and hardly any time to actually teach the kids.
This on top of homework packets to make up for the lack of teach time they are forced with.
How would 4 days make up for the 5th day? How does any of this help with the broken education system?
Who is pushing this bill and why?
Parents will hate this and students need to be in school more not less.
What a stupid idea. Teachers
What a stupid idea. Teachers complain they cant get enough done during the the week as it is. Parents and students complain there is too much home work. Parents will have to have time off or pay for child care. Many of the countries whose scores show tha their kids are in the top of the game, go year round. Perfect Alaska solution, cut back to four days. Maybe we could shorten those remaining days too? That would really save more money...
Excuse me but
"in many small village schools on any give Friday a majority of the students are away for some sport. That requires teachers traveling and leaves the rest of the students, if any, left with some alternative teacher. Perhaps the four day week with no away from school activies on those four days is a real alternativr to consider." Islander
Excuse me, but this is NO reason to change a school week. If kids are academically inclined and not athletically inclined their education should not be cut back on because of some jocks!!!
It's the athletes who should have to work to catch up not the rest of the kids who should lower their own educational standards.
That's why athletes get 'athletic scholarship' awards for making good grades and being successful athletes -- because it's really challenging to do both. Lowering standards for all should not be an option.
oil tax
There is not going to be any money for schools if we lower the oil tax..
It works
I already mentioned on this board that I have seen a 4-day week work. I know it is hard to believe, but it really made a difference in the academic performance in my friend's kid.
This is an article from US News that basically says the same things. There really are benefits to the 4-day week that shouldn't be ignored just because it is an unfamiliar approach.
**************
School officials in districts across the country are moving to three-day weekends in order to battle budget constraints.
Nearly 300 districts operated on a four-day school week last year, with several additional districts making the move this year, and more contemplating the move for 2013.
Cutting an instruction day allows schools to trim transportation, janitorial, and utility costs. The Chattooga County School District in Georgia, for instance, reported annual savings of nearly $800,000 after switching to a four-day school week in 2010. But the shorter week requires students to power through longer days when they are in school in order to meet minimum class time requirements set by states.
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has spoken out against four-day weeks, and school boards in several states have shot down attempts in their districts to move to shorter school weeks. Critics of the shorter week argue high school students should spend more days in school to prepare themselves for college and the workforce. But teachers and administrators immersed in the schedule say students are more focused while in school thanks to the three-day weekend, and the free day allows high schoolers to intern or enroll in college courses.
"I think the kids are more attentive [in class]. And they know that there's not as much downtime, so we've got to get in there and do it," Elanor Brown, a now-retired robotics teacher at Chattooga High School, told the Chattanooga Times Free Press in May.
Student absences and discipline problems are down under the new schedule, as well, according to the Times Free Press, which reports disciplinary write-ups for high school students dropped from 1,344 in 2008 to just 375 in 2011.
Having a day free for doctors' appointments and college visits helps keep bodies in class, experts say. It also cuts out absences for student athletes traveling for school-sponsored sporting events, says Theresa Hamilton, director of districtwide services at Garfield School District No. Re-2 in Colorado.
Students and coaches at the district's high schools missed anywhere from a few hours to a full day of school for athletic travel before the switch to a four-day week this fall, Hamilton says, noting the district chose to close on Fridays in part because travel for sporting events was most common on Fridays.
"I've actually heard this from students; if they're an athlete, they like the fact that they're not missing class on Friday," Hamilton says.
Day care is typically not at an issue for students at the high school level, and parents in the rural Colorado farming community say they appreciate having their teens home to help with chores and look after younger children, she says. The district is also working with the local Chamber of Commerce to develop an internship program, which they will roll out to high school students in a few weeks, Hamilton adds.
It will "let them have a full day, instead of a couple of hours after school, to work with a business, get their hands dirty in that business—figure out if that's really what they want to do in college … and give them those opportunities to develop a craft for when they get out of high school," she says.
Officials at the Waco Community School District in Iowa similarly hope students will use their free day to intern, volunteer, or take college courses if the district transitions to a shorter school week next year. The state's Department of Education approved the district's proposal for a four-day week this summer.
While the plan still needs a final stamp of approval from the school board, which will take up the issue in December, some parents are already keen on the idea.
"I'm hoping he can get some college credit … He can get a jump start on that, so I'm excited about it," Cinda Blake, whose son is a sophomore at Waco High School, told the Cedar Rapids Gazette earlier this month.
But not all students use the free day as school officials intend. One teen from North Branch Public Schools in Minnesota told the Washington Post last year that he spends the day sleeping in and playing video games.
That's great for the small
That's great for the small communities, but what about the rest of us? What's next, every Friday is bring you kids to work day?
Zombie, we will all just
Zombie, we will all just reduce our work day to a four day week. Anyone excited about a 20% cut in pay?
Devil's advocate
An earlier article about this bill highlighted the fact that many students in villages are absent on Fridays, not because of sports travel, but because they are with their families hunting, fishing, or traveling to cities like Juneau for groceries and whatnot. Say what you will, but the facts remain that rural students in Alaska (like rural students elsewhere...not like this bill doesn't have a precedent, people) and their families are more likely to live a lifestyle that doesn't fit perfectly with the cookie-cutter 9-5, M-F schedule Americans have grown so very fond of. More time at school four days a week, for many of these kids, equals MORE TIME AT SCHOOL. Period. Their teachers have a full extra day of prep time, and the communities save a bundle of money on transportation and food costs. For rural students at least, it seems like a win-win.
Dummying up
Just what Alaska needs to prepare our kids for challenging 21st century jobs--less education.
Oh well, at least we won't be losing our best and brightest students to Seattle anymore. We won't have any to begin with.
Well,
This is a stupid idea.