Twin Rivers 2020-21 calendar tabled, more information requested

Conversations about the Twin Rivers R-X 2020-21 calendar continue after a lengthy meeting Thursday afternoon.

Board members and teachers in the audience heard from Dr. Jon S. Turner with the Missouri State University who has conducted research into four-day school weeks since only seven districts used it. The board ultimately voted to table the district calendar in order to get more information before making a decision.

Turner said he doesn’t have an opinion about four-day school weeks. It works for some school districts and not for others, he said, and it should be a local decision.

Turner said his research team is estimating 90-95 school districts in Missouri will be on a year-round four-day school week.

The R-X district started conversations in the fall about the potential of a four-day week by surveying faculty and parents for opinions on it. Over 75% of all groups responded in favor of the change.

Over the last week, administration took another smaller survey of certified and non-certified staff. This time 79.2% supported the move and 7.3% were undecided. School board members requested a second survey of parents over the next month.

Board members requested last month to meet with somebody from outside the district with more information on the subject. Turner, who administration already spoke with, said he instantly agreed to come out to Broseley in person for the discussion.

As part of his research, Turner said he’s visited every school district in the state with a four-day week and spoke with most districts discussing the idea.

Over the course of his research, Turner said, the three groups with the lowest approval rating are parents with students in either kindergarten, first or second grade; parents with special need students, in particular those students with behavioral issues; and community business leaders without kids in school.

During the conversation, board members asked questions about some of the areas of concern they had.

Turner addressed the concern voiced last month about low-income families who struggle with food. He said his data shows free and reduced lunch parents are “wildly in support of” the four-day week in districts where it’s implemented.

On the topic of childcare for the extra day, Turner did bring up several grants the district could apply for to run a program through the school. However, he said, few school districts on the four-day week don’t run a program. Many start with one, he said, but don’t see enough attendance to warrant maintaining it.

Board members also asked about the test scores of students at the districts on a four-day week. Turner said he “wouldn’t touch that with a 10-foot pole” due to changes in the Missouri standardized testing over recent years.

However, school districts in other states, where research has been done, said on average they saw little change because they’re all maintaining the same number of instructional hours.

In the first few years, Turner said, there could be an increase. The other researchers he’s spoken with believe that has to do with increased professional development time and changes to the curriculum rather than the school calendar.

While Turner said his research sees little impact on teacher attendance, student attendance for four-day weeks increased 3-4%

To address academic concerns, Turner said the district could set up invitation-only tutoring on the extra day off for students testing under a certain placement. If the district did this, it could file for federal funding for those students’ additional instructional hours, which has the potential to cover additional fees related to that program.

In connection with finances, Turner said in his research a school district that switched from five-day to four-day weeks did not see a significant change in it’s budget.

During discussion, Superintendent Jeremy Seibert said the main benefit he would hope for if the district did change schedules would be increased teacher attraction and retention rates.

To that, Turner said isolated districts — like Twin Rivers would be — do see an increase in applicants and that teachers stay longer. He said they also see more veteran teacher applicants.

However, if more of the area changes to four-day weeks, that benefit goes away, Turner said, which is the situation in the Springfield area.

Board members also voiced concerns about an increase in delinquencies in the area on that extra day off. Turner said his Missouri research does not see that as a trend. Research in some other states has seen an increase, but also see a decrease in at-school discipline.

A concern the board is still discussing relates to sports. Under the four-day calendar presented Thursday, 45 minutes will be added to the school day, mostly at the end of the day.

Board members voiced concerns about how the later time would impact travel to games and practices. They also brought up Monday practices.

The details of those are still in question and the board is expected to revisit the calendar at next month’s meeting.

Calendar

Along with Turner’s presentation, the board received two proposed calendars.

The four-day schedule would start Tuesday, Aug. 25, which is the earliest it can.

Nov. 24-27 would be Thanksgiving break.

Christmas break would be from Dec. 22 to Jan. 4, 2021.

Students would have Friday, April 2, 2021, off for Easter break.

The last day of school would be May 21.

Spring break is not listed on the calendar.

One Monday a month for the second semester is marked as a possible make-up day in case of school cancellations.

Meanwhile, the five-day week would have students start Monday, Aug. 24.

Thanksgiving break and Christmas break would be the same regardless of the calendar.

Spring break would be Wednesday, March 11, through Monday, March 15, 2021.

Students would have Friday, April 2, and Monday, April 5, 2021, off for Easter break. These are the same days, but the five-day calendar adds Monday as it isn’t automatically off.

Under the proposed five-day calendar, school would end May 11, 2021.

Even with five-day weeks, the bell schedule would add 15 minutes per day to address a later start date mandated by state law.