Administrators say 4-day school week off to a good start

MINERAL WELLS — While Mineral Wells ISD Superintendent Dr. John Kuhn maintains the impetus behind the district’s switch to a four-day school week this year was teacher retention, he’s quick to add what’s good for teachers is good for students.
“One of the fundamental philosophies I cherish is that the teachers working conditions is the students learning condition,” Kuhn said. “If you have teachers who are satisfied in their jobs, who like what they do,who feel they are respected and they’re treated right, then I think they’re going to do a better job and it’s going to trickle down to benefit the children.”
Kuhn said the district did a thorough assessment of the pros and cons of a four-day instruction week before the school board approved it last May, to begin with the 2022-23 academic year. The board’s vote came in the wake of losing several teachers to neighboring districts offering a four-day week, coupled with a dwindling supply of educators nationwide.
“There is a real national teacher shortage, and you can look at the number of people majoring in education and it’s bottomed out,”Kuhn noted.“We’re trying to make sure we’re an attractive destination for quality teachers so we have a good education opportunity for our students.”
To help determine what that appealing teacher work environment may look like,the district surveyed its approximate 320 teachers before making the change. Eightyseven percent said they supported a four-day week.
“The four-day school week is an appealing opportunity for MWISD employees and students,” Ashton Baker, a Mineral Wells High School English teacher, stated in an email to the Palo Pinto Press. “In a time where teachers may feel under appreciated or may feel the burden of burnout, it is refreshing to work in a competitive and responsive district. What’s more, the four-day school week has drawn an incredible pool of high-caliber teachers to my campus.”
Christian Sanders is new to MWISD. He is now the theater director at MWHS after teaching at Graham Junior High School and serving 20 years with the Graham Regional Theater.
Sanders said he didn’t come to Mineral Wells because of the shorter week – at first. He initially came because of the school’s culture.
“They really did their due diligence in making this decision (about the four-day school week)” he said.“Once I knew about all the research they did and all the questions they answered, I was sold.”
In Texas, schools are required to be open a minimum of 75,600 minutes during the academic year, including recess and lunch. To accommodate for the time lost with a Monday through Thursday schedule, the district started the school year early, on Aug. 8, and extended it by one week.The school days are also 30 minutes longer.
Kuhn said having Fridays away from the classroom will give teachers more time to work on lesson plans and grading papers, without having to take that workload home over the weekend. An important work-life balance so many teachers fell they are missing, and a contributor to teacher burnout, he added.
“Part of my hope for the fourday instruction week is that some of the work our teachers have historically done on Sunday nights… and can have Sundays with their families more than they’ve had in the past,” he said.
Kuhn noted many of the concerns raised by parents have been addressed, including child care when school is closed on Fridays. The district provides an optional remediation day at Houston Elementary School for grades four and under.
It’s equivalent to an extra day of school. Jamie Miller was excited to learn about the remediation day for her daughter who is in second grade and struggling with math.
“This was actually to help her,” Miller said while waiting to pick up her child at Houston Elementary on a Friday afternoon. “This is not day care for me. I think it’s great.”
Kids attending the remediation day also receive a free meal. Moreover, the Backpack Buddy program is now sending students home with enough food to last over a three-day weekend, instead of the traditional two. Backpack Buddies is a local nonprofit that provides food for at-risk children when meal programs are not available.
Some took issue with giving students more free time to get in trouble, or more time in what may be unstable home environments.
Concerns over the possibility of student test scores being negatively impacted due to the shorter week have been raised. Kuhn pointed out that the district’s extended schedule offers more minutes of instruction over the year than required by the state.
He also expects student and staff absences to be reduced as a result of the four-day week, meaning more time for both in the classroom.The day school is not in session allows students and staff to schedule appointments that normally would have required them to miss school.
Additionally, he said there is no conclusive evidence that a shorter week lowers test scores. He cited a meta-analysis study published by the National Rural Education Association, that states: “From a policy perspective, a decision to change to a four-day school week should be made on the basis of cost savings or stakeholder preference rather than to increase test scores. Conversely, it does not appear that concern over student academic performance should be used as a reason not to implement a four-day school week.”
Kuhn said any savings the district may see is minimal and he expects test scores to increase as a result of the four-day week. Recently, the Texas Education Agency released its first public school ratings in three years giving Mineral Wells ISD an overall B rating, scoring 87 of the possible 100 metric points. The TEA’s ratings are linked to results of the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR test.
Kuhn said while he’s pleased with that rating, he anticipates scores will improve with the fourday school week.
“I have a lot of confidence at the end of this year, our first year of a four-day week, we’re going to see gains,” he said.
And, if they don’t? “We reserve the right to go back to a five-day school week if we feel it’s necessary,” Kuhn said. “There are no sacred cows. It’s all about doing right by our students.”