Reader comments
High gas costs may shorten school weeks

Well, it would be about time that the legislature got around to correcting the error made a number of years ago by that same body when it took away the 4-day week option that several rural districts were already using with success.

Not only would a 4 day week save gasoline - and other energy costs (witness the savings of those districts who do 4-days during the summer)- sports or other competitions/ festivals could be held on a non-school day, thus eliminating the many lost academic hours taken by travel from one school to another.

Perhaps tutoring or enrichment could even be offered on these non-school days. Think of the positive possibilities!

I support a 4-day school week. Remember, quality not quantity is what our kids need. Please, please, please go to a 4-day school week.

4 days of school a week? How is lengthening the school week going to save energy?

Every school district in the state should go to 4 day weeks. So should every business.

It is time we realize the run till you drop mentality isn't working for the U.S. A little break during the week would do wonders for our mental state. Spend some time with the kids. Realize work isn't life.

We need to look to some of the calmer European countries to see how life is really supposed to run.

Remember no one on their death bed ever said, "I wish I had spent more time at work!"

How about locating and designing schools so that more kids can walk and bicycle? We used to do that (and we had fewer obese kids), but school boards starting locating new schools in the middle of nowhere, and started designing them with the assumption that everyone would arrive by vehicle. We got what we asked for. Now, we're contemplating reducing the amount of instruction because we can't come to grips with an auto-dependent development pattern. That's a huge price to pay.

*4 days of school a week? How is lengthening the school week going to save energy?*

Uh, 4 days of school would not be lenghtening the school week, it would be shortening it. It is currently 5 days a week.

*Now, we're contemplating reducing the amount of instruction because we can't come to grips with an auto-dependent development pattern.*

I don't believe it would reduce the amount of instruction. The idea (I believe) would be to shorten the school week, but lengthen the school day for those 4 days that kids will be attending.

I am all for a four day week!

I can see how a 4 day school week can be very appetizing to students and parents and even teachers. It is one more free day to do what you want. Eventhough it would be fun, I do not believe it would be in the best interest of the students. They need the continuity that a 5 day week provides. There is another way to cut gas expenses. Cut sports programs that require students to travel across the state. The number of miles busses go would decrease tremendously. But even more important, the number of hours students spend outside the classroom would also decrease. The quality quantity argument has merit, but there has to be a minimum amount of time students spend in school in order for the argument to work.
Rural student athletes do not meet that minimum amount criteria as it stands now.

Four day school week makes tons of sense on a lot of levels. Will NEVER happen though because parents need the free babysitting service five days a week.

I would have to agree that I don't see parents buying into a 4 day week. It's very true they want the free babysitting service all five work days. We had a very difficult time getting a 1 hour late start approved(teacher collaboration time)for similar reasons. And that was only 1 hour! I like Karen's idea that sports and other activities could be held on the non-school days and there is extreme positive potential for enrichment, tutoring or even remidiation. (But does that mean as a teacher I have a 60 hour work week?) My concern as a teacher is also the logistics. I already stay late at school and lengthening the work day would be very difficult on myself and my family. I already feel like I live at school. I know there are Government offices that are going to transition to a 4 day work week and my sister (who is a social worker in a Utah Government office) is not sure how she feels about her soon-to-be 10 hour work day. Who knows, maybe it won't matter what the parents and teachers think. Government could still make it happen. Pros and cons both ways.

I agree that teachers already spend so much time at school that lengthening the school day would increase the large demands already placed on our school teachers. Also, if the extra curricular things, like sports, are put on the non-school day it won't save in gasoline usage because the students would still have to be transported to the school so they can meet their groups as well as parents needing to go and support their children in their events. I just don't see that as being the answer to this problem. Teachers would probably have to stay that non-school day anyway, so it would be lengthening the school teacher work week. Also, having sports or other extra activities on the non-school day would cause a huge problem for students that wouldn't have transportation to the school on that day and therefore would be cut out of participating in those activities. This would mean only the students that have better means would be the ones participating in those activities. I don't feel this would be a good thing for the schools.