Charter school seeks 4-day week

East Hollywood High School wants permission from the State Board of Education to change to a four-day school week.

Located in West Valley City, it is the first charter school in Utah to make such a request.

Even so, the state board in January unanimously approved a statement warning school districts, which oversee charter schools, that they better have a good reason for asking to change the schedule.

The board will only consider waiver requests in "the most extreme circumstances of distance, isolation and small school size," according to the statement.

East Hollywood administrators plan to address the board's Law and Policy Committee on Friday morning. The full board is scheduled to discuss and vote on the request Friday afternoon.

Eric Lindsey, East Hollywood's director, said the school draws teens from as far away as Ogden, Layton, Tooele, Provo and Park City. Seventy percent of the students live more than 10 miles away.

"Our students travel a long distance to be here," Lindsey said.

Cutting one day of travel and allowing the teens more time during the day to work on projects is driving the request, said Steve Winitzky, director of the Utah Association of Public Charter Schools. He is also on the East Hollywood board.

The school, which opened in 2004, has 275 students. The goal is to teach teens film production and related arts and media while they prepare for college.

East Hollywood officials say they would like to have extended days and longer class periods because their curriculum is project-based. "The bell is the enemy," said Matt Thomas, a language-arts teacher.

School leaders are still examining a future schedule but said they would likely ax Fridays and extend the other four school days while shortening their 50-minute lunch period to 30 minutes.

They may also extend their school year a week into June to meet the state-required 990 hours.

Fridays could be used for makeup work and tutoring, as well as off-campus film projects, they said.

School leaders surveyed 100 parents and found that 73 preferred a four-day week schedule.

Of 177 students polled, 98 wanted a four-day week, 35 wanted the current schedule and 44 didn't care. Two students said they would not attend the school anymore if it switched to a four-day week.

East Hollywood's chief financial officer estimates that the switch would save the school $30,000 to $35,000 in reduced utilities, building maintenance, cleaning and substitute teachers.

The State Charter School Board unanimously voted to recommend East Hollywood's waiver request to the state board for a one-year pilot period starting fall 2009.

E-mail: astewart@desnews.com