Published: June 10, 2009 07:40 am      

Sharon-Mututal to use 4-day week in spring

At Monday night’s Sharon-Mutual Board of Education meeting a compromise was reached on the district’s schedule for next year.

The board voted for school to be in session five days a week during the fall semester and four days a week in the spring.

Sharon-Mutual Superintendent Emma Sidders said the compromise will allow the district to evaluate the four day school week better.

“We discussed it and determined that it would be an easier transition to go to five days a week the first semester and four days in the second semester and then compare the results of the two,” Sidders said.

Going to a four day school week is an option that schools now have thanks to a bill that passed the state legislature this session allowing schools to count class time in hours instead of days.

The bill is designed to help schools work around bad weather days. For rural schools the bill also allows for the possibility of a 4-day school week, which will save districts money and allow them to hold activities and sporting events on Fridays without having students miss classes.

In May Sharon-Mutual hosted a meeting for parents and community members about the possibility of the district going to a 4-day week. Sidders said that at the meeting a PowerPoint presentation was shown that gave the pros and cons of the system as well as examples of schools in other states that use the four day week.

Parents who work were concerned about finding people to watch their kids on the extra day off from school. But Sidders says that at least for this year only five extra Fridays will be missed by the district adopting the 4- day week in the spring.

“We really only added five Fridays off at the beginning of the semester,” Sidders said.

Classes will start 15 minutes earlier and will last 15 minutes longer Sidders said. That means classes begin at 8:30 a.m. and kids will not get out until 3:45 p.m.

In order for Sharon-Mutual to go full-time to the four day week Sidders said several factors will have to be considered. Student achievement, time in the classroom, the cost savings of a four day week and parental input will all be evaluated throughout next school year Sidders said.

At the end of next school year the board will look back at all the information collected and determine if Sharon-Mutual will go to a four day school week permanently.