Valley legislators propose four-day school week

Casual Friday may get a whole lot more casual.

Like, pajamas all day long.

That could be for both kids and parents, if a bill introduced by local lawmakers is enacted.

State Sens. Jim Honeyford, R-Sunnyside, and Curtis King, R-Yakima, and Reps. Dan Newhouse, R-Sunnyside, and Bruce Chandler, R-Granger, are proposing that school districts be given the flexibility to go to a four-day week.

Senate Bill 5112 and its companion, House Bill 1292, would allow the State Board of Education to grant waivers from the 180-day school year requirement but still ensure that students receive the same number of instructional hours -- 1,000 per school year.

The House bill is slated for a hearing in the education committee this morning. Rep. Geoff Simpson, D-Olympia, is also a bill sponsor.

In the bills, districts wouldn't have to shutter schools on Friday, often called Casual Friday in the work place, but they would have the choice of closing one day a week.

"The goal is cost savings, to have lower heating and transportation costs," Honeyford explained in a telephone interview, pointing out that it could result in more money being spent in the classroom.

Honeyford emphasized that the bill would make the four-day week voluntary only and not a requirement.

Noting that local school district control is key, Honeyford said that an interested district could either lengthen the school day by an hour or so or extend additional days at the end of the school year.

"It would be up to the district to work out with parents and faculty," he said.

However, the devil could be in the details, said an official with the local educational service district.

Dave Curry, assistant superintendent for fiscal services at ESD 105, agreed that running a district for four days instead of five could save expenses. "But I don't see it improving the academic effort," he said.

Reaching consensus among parents, staff and administration for a four-day school week might be problematic, he said.

"Some districts may try it on for size, but some may have complications with it, primarily with bargaining units (of employee unions)," Curry said.

If the staff of a district embraces it, then it could be workable, he said.

Although he hadn't seen the bills, Superintendent Ben Soria of the Yakima School District had some immediate concerns. It doesn't make sense to have children in high poverty areas out of school for an extra day, he pointed out.

"A lot of students need a place to go five days a week," he said. "I think this is going backward."

Although some teachers might like the idea, Soria worried that others would find that additional time in the classroom each day a burn-out issue, perhaps losing efficacy.

In a news release, Newhouse said that he had been approached by Lyle School District Superintendent Martin Huffman, proposing the four-day-week idea. Newhouse described it as a common-sense solution to meet various needs of local school districts.

Honeyford said he thinks the four-day week concept will be more popular in small rural districts rather than large ones. He explained that it may be more likely that both parents are working away from home in urban areas; in farming communities one parent might stay at home. With a parent at home, child-care issues might not be a concern.

In the Bickleton School District, which serves 105 students in an area of more than 500 square miles, Superintendent Rick Palmer worked with the Lyle School District in suggesting the bill and plans to testify about its potential today in Olympia. He surveyed other small school districts about the idea. Most of them said they would like to see someone try it.

Four-day school weeks are now used in some communities in 17 states, including Oregon, California, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona, according to a bill analysis by the House Education Committee.

Palmer indicated that savings could be substantial. The Lyle district typically spends $1,700 on transportation fuel during May. Dropping a day a week would cut that by 20 percent, or $340. And that was before last year's hike in gas prices.

Utilities would go down, too. The district has only two buildings, but they are heated with electricity. The electric bill alone is over $5,000.

"You start talking a lot of money over time," he said.

Palmer also believes it would make it easier for staff development. Most of the time, teachers must travel to the Yakima Valley for training sessions. That sometimes means finding substitute teachers in a place where they can be hard to find.

"A lot of these kids are out on the farms. They can stay home and work," Palmer said.

He expects parents who commute to the Lower Valley for work may not like finding one day of day care, "but school is not a day-care system."

Palmer believes attendance would improve.

Rick Cole, superintendent of Sunnyside School District, said he has not made up his mind on the idea.

It brings up some labor concerns if employees are limited to four days a week, he said.

He suspected it would affect secretaries, custodians and other support staff more than certificated teachers.

He likes the idea of saving fuel on buses, but he wondered what would happen to the bus drivers who have one less day of work.

Besides, in most districts, employee wages and benefits consume most of the budget. Personnel costs make up 82 percent of the Sunnyside district budget.

Also, he said districts already use calendar waivers -- exemptions from the state-mandated school calendar. Sunnyside, for example, uses a waiver to eliminate all its half days, while Grandview uses one to limit school to half days on Fridays to make time for teacher training.

Of the five lawmakers backing the shortened school week bills, King is the only legislator who sits on an education committee. He's the ranking Republican on the Senate Early Learning & K-12 Education Committee.

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