Four Day School Weeks

8bitnes

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Its likely less that they 'can't work 5 days a week' and more that they have better options if they're going to work 5 days. Going 4 days is a selling point they can try to offer. Especially for districts that might be in that 'remote but drivable' distance from a metro area, it might be easier to convince a teacher living in a metro to do a long commute into a small town if they only have to make that drive 4x a week.
Pretty sure saydel went to a four day. Saydel for those that don't know is directly between Ankeny and Des Moines and is a 3a school. Teachers there can enjoy the best that suburban living offers and teach the four day week.
There have been plenty of interviews on the subject of the four day by whotv and kcci
 

madguy30

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And? I see this comment all the time on here. What does it even mean? Yes, as a parent I would prefer my kids school hours overlap with normal business hours. Most working parents would just be paying child care on the 5th day. Childcare that’s already mostly unavailable and unaffordable.

Lining up with working hours is a valid case.

There's smoke about 4 day work weeks too but that's for other threads and a scary subject for a few...let's just say insecure folks.

The 'daycare' part is for the 'parent' who leaves it up to the school to provide basic life things, but then turns around to go after the school or teacher for establishing boundaries.

Why just yesterday I had a colleague say a parent told them they're 'killing their kids' spirit' because they held the kid accountable for stealing something.

This type of thing is pretty normal which brings us back to how people are leaving in droves or not filling in the openings.
 

NWICY

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Lining up with working hours is a valid case.

There's smoke about 4 day work weeks too but that's for other threads and a scary subject for a few...let's just say insecure folks.

The 'daycare' part is for the 'parent' who leaves it up to the school to provide basic life things, but then turns around to go after the school or teacher for establishing boundaries.

Why just yesterday I had a colleague say a parent told them they're 'killing their kids' spirit' because they held the kid accountable for stealing something.

This type of thing is pretty normal which brings us back to how people are leaving in droves or not filling in the openings.
So the parent wanted to let the kid steal until he steals enough to go to jail/prison?
That is hell of a viewpoint.
 

jmb

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And? I see this comment all the time on here. What does it even mean? Yes, as a parent I would prefer my kids school hours overlap with normal business hours. Most working parents would just be paying child care on the 5th day. Childcare that’s already mostly unavailable and unaffordable.
Fairly simple answer. It won't happen because you will have to pay for childcare and most people will raise hell to avoid paying for childcare. This isn't an incremental cost and you know that.
 

rosshm16

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I work at a "flagship public state university" similar to ISU. There are barely any classes on Fridays anymore, and barely anyone around on Fridays (faculty, staff, students, nobody). Good luck if you need to meet in-person with some admin on a Friday, they're all "working" from home. I hear many similar things from colleagues at other institutions. It is just a matter of time until universities are formally closed on Fridays. Informally, many already are.

The reasons are somewhat similar to those described in this thread: students won't sign up for courses that meet on Fridays, and employees won't accept job offers that require them to work in-person more than maybe three days a week. In the Summer and Winter terms, every class we offer has to be online/asynchronous, students won't sign up for them elsewise. This was all coming on the horizon but COVID accelerated it.

I think we should just pull the bandaid and do it. Four-day week. Lengthen the academic year to compensate. Students don't need ~ four months of break between semesters.
 

madguy30

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So the parent wanted to let the kid steal until he steals enough to go to jail/prison?
That is hell of a viewpoint.

She but point stands...that's just the tip of the ice berg and not just stealing but I could list all sorts of examples of parents blaming teachers for their kids' behaviors or not acknowledging that they happen.

And there's about a 70/30 chance the principal takes the parents' side.
 
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BCClone

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Not exactly sure.
She but point stands...that's just the tip of the ice berg and not just stealing but I could list all sorts of examples of parents blaming teachers for their kids' behaviors.

And there's about a 70/30 chance the principal takes the parents' side.

It’s never their kids fault. Their kids don’t lie. It’s that mentality now.

Every kid lies to their parents. Every kid does something they shouldn’t. Every kid picks on/bullies another kid at sometime. Best you can do is teach as soon as the issue becomes known and part of that teaching is punishing them. But too many parents think their kid is the greatest to ever walk, when they are just another kid.
 

Messi

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Maybe a dumb question and probably already answered

But how does a 4 day school week work with 2 parents who have m-f 9-5s? What’s typical plan on that off day for student?
 
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ZorkClone

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Which may not be possible in every household given their professions.
I would even say the majority of households. People here skew college educated (duh it's a college sports forum), but only 30 percent of Iowans 25+ hold a bachelor's degree or higher. Most non-degree requiring jobs require in person work.
 

NWICY

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She but point stands...that's just the tip of the ice berg and not just stealing but I could list all sorts of examples of parents blaming teachers for their kids' behaviors or not acknowledging that they happen.

And there's about a 70/30 chance the principal takes the parents' side.
Well that would be incredibly frustrating
 

flycy

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Most will add 20-30 minutes and then kill all the extra that get added for snow days. Snow days are made up on the day not normally scheduled. They also do teacher inservice days on the open date and not have a 1-2 hour early out weekly/bi-weekly.
My kids' school no longer have snow days, just learning from home days which is the same thing only they count the hours. All the kids long ago learned to say their internet wasn't working so they wouldn't be held accountable for whatever was supposed to be done.
 

BCClone

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Not exactly sure.
Obviously the preference would be Monday-Thursday, but I did a summer of Monday Tuesday Thursday Friday and that wasn't bad.

I just think the traditional 40-hour work week is antiquated.
I asked because I think many just assume that 4 day means M-TH. But reality is that there will be a lot of people where that either won’t work or will have negative effects. Most of the service industry will have to have random days off so they can cover 7 days/week to be open. The places that run 3 shifts a day will have to go to a weekend crew or have people now working days all over the week to make them work.

I’m not against it, I don’t really care. I’m just saying that the same people that can benefit from this are also the mostly the same people who will just “work from home “ while they childcare their kids on the day that schools have off.
 

BCClone

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Not exactly sure.
My kids' school no longer have snow days, just learning from home days which is the same thing only they count the hours. All the kids long ago learned to say their internet wasn't working so they wouldn't be held accountable for whatever was supposed to be done.
The schools have to have state authority to do the online. My wife’s doesn’t have that. They built in 5 auto snow days every year. So they don’t worry about the first 5 days. State football has ate 2 of them the last several years so it’s actually been 3 days. They just had the last two used last week or they kids would have given two extra days.