Alexander Public School Four Day School Week Proposal

• At this time: this is only a proposal, the Alexander School Board has NOT voted on a 4 day school week. It is on the February 13, 2018 School Board Agenda.

• How it started? • Innovation Class as a project

• Presentation to Ms. Bieber in Spring of 2017 and again in the Fall of 2017

• Students and Principals went to other schools with 4 day week

• School Board Presentation in December

• School Board presentation in January by Ms. Bieber• Board gave consent to take it to the next level and receive feedback from stakeholders

(parent survey and public meetings). Board decision will be made at the Feb. board meeting to move forward with the state application.

• Discussion with teachers : late Fall of 2017

• High School teachers

• Morale of students

• More time in class

• Perseverance of work ethic

• Perfect fit for the Power of ICU

• What is the Power of ICU

• Elementary Teachers

• Intervention time 1 to 1 or small group

• Success of summer school

• Longer Days

• 90 minutes of Math

• 90 minutes of Reading

• Not cut out our specials (music, PE, STEM, art, etc.)

• Long days for little ones, we will put in down time for them

• More recess or classroom activity where needed

What doesn’t change…..

• Instructional Hours for High School is 1,038

• Teachers Work Load

• Expectations for students

• Standard based teaching

• School Activities

• Lunch time

• Transportation still available for all

• Meals provided on Friday

• School breaks (holidays)

• Evaluations

What does change…..

• Time built into the schedule for 1 on 1, small group instruction

• Teachers work normal business hours

• 4 day school week rather than 5 day school week

• Friday Program in place of After School Program (once approved by board)

• Relief of academic fatigue

• Teachers will have time to plan

School on Fridays

Friday mornings with teachers

• Teachers from both high school & elementary will work with students who need or want help.

• Teachers will work with students who missed school.

• Teachers will rotate who will be present on Friday mornings.

• Program will run from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 a.m.

• Transportation will be provided.

Friday School Program

• No new instruction will be given

• Fun academic activities

• The day will be chunked with a variety of topics.

• 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

• Breakfast and Lunch available

• Transportation provided

• Physical activities will be included

• Example: Nurse Heen is excited to be able to do health interactive lessons like heart function, blood components, how germs spread.

Pros and Cons of 4 day week

Cons

• Child care on Fridays

• Longer days with early mornings

• ITV courses that are M-F from 1:00-3:00 pm are recorded and the student will need to view the course on their own time.

Pros

• Increased morale for both students and staff

• Decreased absenteeism for both students and staff

• A day open for appointments for both students and staff

• No negative academic effects for all grade levels but rather an increase in data (Anderson & Walker, 2012)

• Increase time in class with an instructor

• Friday 1 on 1 instruction (students who need help for days missed or for kids who are not on grade level)

• Older kids are able to work

• Attract new teachers

• Professional Development

• Storm days or late starts will be made up on Fridays

• Maintenance will have time to deep clean, do repairs, etc. when students are not present, especially during sick seasons.

East Fairview’s assessment scores:

• East Fairview has had a 4 day school week since 2015-2016 school year. They have seen growth in their assessments.

• 2014-2015: 56% proficient in ELA and 33% in Math

• 2015-2016: 75% proficient in ELA and 52% in Math

• 2016-2017: 76% proficient in ELA and 50% in Math

Tentative Calendar Days of a 4 Day School Week

• August 16, 2018 - 1st day of school

• May 24, 2019 – Last day of school

• 4 day school week does not mean every Friday off: if there is no school on Monday, we will attend school on the following Fridays. • August 17• September 7• November 16 and 30• December 21• February 22• April 26• May 24

• Professional Development Dates: • Aug. 14-15, Oct. 12, Jan. 4, March 29

Draft of a High School Bell Schedule

Period Instruction time Min/pd. Period Instruction time Min/pd.

1st 8:00-9:00 60 min. 1st 8:00-9:00 60 min.

2nd 9:03-10:03 60 min. 2nd 9:03-10:03 60 min.

3rd 10:06-11:06 60 min. 3rd 10:06-11:06 60 min.

4th 11:06-12:06 60 min. 4th 11:06-12:06 60 min.

5th 12:36-1:36 60 min. 5th 12:36-1:36 60 min.

6th 1:39-2:39 60 min. 6th 1:39-2:29 50 min.

7th 2:42-3:45 54 min. 7th 2:31-3:11 50 min.

Lunch 12:06-12:36 30 min 8th 3:14-3:45 34 min.

Lunch 12:06-12:36 30 min.

Bell passing 15 minutes

Instruction 360 minutes per day

Days per year 151 days

Total minutes/year 62,514

Total required 62,280 1,038 required hours

234 over

Evaluation of 4 day school week

• ND DPI application requires evaluation of program effectiveness annually

• Student performance

• Data on progress and declines

• Changes in educational/academic opportunities

• Teacher effectiveness

Q.1: Under a 4 day school week, the buses will run 30 minutes earlier in the morning and approximately 5 minutes later in the afternoon. The benefits of a 4 day week justify students riding earlier in the morning.

34%

35%

8%

6%

17% Strongly Agree

Agree

No Opinion

Disagree

Strongly Disagree

Q.2: A 4 day week with longer days will have a ___________effect on children in grades K-4.

73%

27%

Positive

Negative

Q.3: A 4 day week with longer days will have a ______________effect on children in grades 5-12.

69

16

Positive Negative

Q.3: Our family’s child care would cause a hardship if students attend school only 4 days per week.

10%

8%

29%

19%

34% Strongly Agree

Agree

No Opinion

Disagree

Strongly Disagree

Q.4: On a 4 day week schedule, Fridays will be used to help students. I believe that the 1 to 1 or small group instruction will be a benefit to students.

57%27%

6%3%

7%

Strongly Agree

Agree

No Opinion

Disagree

Strongly Disagree

Q.5: On a 4 day week schedule, our family will try to schedule all doctor, dentists and other such appointments on the day off.

53%

29%

2%6%

10%

Strongly Agree

Agree

No Opinion

Disagree

Strongly Disagree

Q.7: I am concerned of the academic effects that a 4 day week schedule will have on my child(ren)/students.

13%

12%

15%

29%

31% Strongly Agree

Agree

No Opinion

Disagree

Strongly Disagree

Q.8: On the basis of what is educationally best for students, I believe the district should consider going to a 4 day week schedule.

42%

30%

7%

4%

17%

Strongly Agree

Agree

No Opinion

Disagree

Strongly Disagree

Q.9: On the basis of my family’s personal preference, I believe the district should consider going to a 4 day week schedule.

43%

27%

7%

6%

17%

Strongly Agree

Agree

No Opinion

Disagree

Strongly Disagree

Q.10: On Fridays, I foresee my children______________________________.

• Benefiting!

• Getting their chores done. Going to appointments. Going out of town for a long weekend with the family. Doing homework if needed.

• Going over what they’ve learned at school that week, doing homework, going to appointments and catching up on house chores.

• I would have to find some kind of child care, which is very limited in the area.

• Doing better on a four day week. I think having Fridays as a help day is a very good idea.

• Catching up on homework, using this day to study or attend any appointment needed.

• Having a day off from school or utilizing the day to make up work at school with one on one instruction.

• Being at home, or going to appointments. Possibly participating in lessons of some sort (guitar, dance).

• In school

• Being unsupervised and putting the family in a bad way. The only way to make sure that it doesn't effect on the family in a negative light is to get the working parents on a 4 day week as well. Do you believe that you can do that as well? Bad idea. Most people can't pay the bills on only 4 days.

• Spending time with their dad.

• Participating in sports and using their time to further their academic studies, oh and of course.. sleep in...

• Being at home

• Enjoying their 3 day weekend. ☺

• Catching up on school work, working outside the home to earn income for self.

• Attending sporting events.

• Going to school then spending time with family

• Having to be home alone or trying to find daycare

• At school

• Helping at home

• Spending quality time with family

• Having free time. Being able to work on projects he's interested in. Being able to go to appointments that otherwise would cut into his regular hours and cause him to have to make work up and have an extra load placed on him whenever he might have missed time that we could have scheduled on a day off.

• Sitting around and wasting her mind watching tv.

• Playing video games while parents are at work.

• Having more 1on1 time with teachers.

• Appointments, errands

• Going to appointments, helping mom more around the house, catching up on sleep

• Being children instead of students. Kids NEED to go play and be kids.

• Spending time with family.

• Enjoy family time ..... getting needed rest

• Bored, Mom and dad both work, so they’ll be at a sitters.

• Enjoying the start of a 3 day weekend.

• Helping on the farm, going to appointments

• Spending family time

• Being at home

• Having more family time

• Sitting at home doing nothing while I am at work. Idle time unsupervised for an entire day is not a good plan. These kids are already scoring below in the state standardized test in comparison to like aged students at other schools.

• Spending family time, going to scheduled doctor visits, or having study time.

• Hopefully staying home

• Going on trips with me!!

• Getting the extra help he needs to succeed.

• Working

• Might need extra school help

• Having more time just being a kid

• Getting homework done, family time, getting extra help with school work, doctor appointments

• Doing extra school work that I have them get from the teachers.

• Going to school

• Staying home

• Going to sporting events

• Helping out on the farm, going to appointments, being outside

• At home

• Being outside, studying if needed, helping around the house

• being at home unless further academic assistance is needed for them at the school on that day.

Q. 11: Please Comment in the box below all comments or questions.

• I worry about children learning everything they can on a shorter week schedule. I worry that kids might be home alone on Fridays and leave some to get in trouble. For those with parents at work Mon-Fri.

• I'm only worried how this would effect the families with childcare and what not.

• After looking into this and reading several articles about a 4 day week, I don’t see that there is much benefit to students. Although I understand there is no significant decrease in standardized test scores there also aren’t improvements. I’m not sure how this going to save the school all that much money. It was stated that some teachers will work on Fridays, lunch will be provided so you will not be cutting any significant costs. I don’t think being able to go to the dentist or doctor on a day off is a good enough reason. The only major benefit I see is to teachers and staff. Although I understand that it is hard to get new teachers to the school, I believe we need to serve the students best interest and I don’t believe a four day week is right for our students.

• For my family, I believe a 4 day week would be an easy adjustment - but that's because I stay at home with the kids. I worry about those families who need to find childcare, or the low income kids who have a hard time getting a good meal at home. For those kids who don't have good support at home, I worry that extended weekends will be a hardship for them.

• That's very early to put kids on the bus.

• Supervision. Finances. Lifestyle changes. Culture. Bad idea!

• I think a 4 day week will allow for better attendance with the planning of trips and appointments. East Fairview and Horse Creek are all ready on a 4 day school week and it works very well with them. I am very excited that this will allow for more consistent and better quality training with staff members.

• Less social interaction won’t benefit my autistic son.

• I see an even amount of pros and cons to going to a 4 day week. I'm not sure changing things will make it easier for parents or students.

• The longer days will be hard foe a child with special needs and also my child can not make his therapy or Dr. app on Fridays cause they are not open I do not like this idea it does not help my children it hurts them

• I think this is a positive change for the district.

• The fact that the little kids will have to get up even earlier. My son will have to get up at 6 am to meet the bus at 7 am. Then he will get home at 3:45 be ready for bed at 5:00. It will make extremely long days for the little kids.

• Won’t benefit anyone if this happens

• I've been in a 4 day district and my child did better in school and it gave my family more time to be together. I'm All for a four day week!

• We need to see the results of national and state test scores for each of the last five years for the Alexander School. Special education student scores should not be shared but the other results, without student identification, should be shared. This important decision needs to be based upon what is academically beneficial to students, not what students or staff would like. The student test scores over the last five years should give the board a good overall picture of how well our students are actually doing. If they are not doing well with a five day week, a four day week will certainly not be beneficial.

• Our child stated they did not want to go to a 4 day a week school. They are not excited about a longer school year and longer days. As a parent I do not like the idea. It will not help planning appointments. We will still focus on work days off that fall on other day than Friday.

• I like the idea and have heard positions things about other districts that game implemented the four day week.

• My children are tired as is after the school day, and already have a difficult time waking up with a 8 pm bedtime. They are DONE with school when they get home and getting either to practice spelling, sight words, whatever may be is next to impossible. In this community most doctor appointments can’t even be scheduled on Fridays because of scheduling rules with the clinics. Most dentists are closed or close at noon. Craven Hagan clinic doesn’t even accept appointments on Fridays until that morning if you are lucky enough to get an appointment.

• We would love a 4 day school week. We think It would benefit our kids academically . By Thursday I feel like they are done for the week and ready to shut down.

• As long as it doesn’t take away from my child’s regular learning curriculum.

• This is completely unacceptable. We are already sending these kids out into the real world totally unprepared for college and the workforce and you want to remove another day of teaching and learning. Absurd. Focus your time in fixing what is broken with our school and less on how to get out of more work.

• I grew up with a 4 day school week and loved it!!

• There is not enough research to show the potential adverse effect this could have on our education system.

• It would be hardship for small children like Pre K, kindergartens and lower grades to ride buses longer. My PreK child rides the bus for 2 hours a school day. This is already a strain.

• I would love for this to happened.

• Cell phones in class rooms are not good. All teachers I talked to said they do not like phones in class. Students abuse it. I pay for my kids phone, if school wants them to use it as educational, school should supply students with phones. My child is not allowed to have phone in class. If he does he loses it. His battery is dead by the time he gets done with school. That tells me he uses it for more than educational use.

• I'm not so sure longer hours would do well for the much younger kids. Older grades yes it's a good idea

• We came from a 4 day school week schedule. My kids liked school more and were more involved while at school.