Baxter CSD exploring four-day school week

Following a growing trend in the State of Iowa, the Baxter Community School District is exploring moving to a four-day school week. The district held an informational meeting Dec. 11 to help educate the community about what a four-day instructional week would look like, the rationale for making the move, benefits and concerns along with research done on the topic.

“To this point, what we have been doing as a district is spending about seven to 10 weeks doing research and meeting with districts already in the four-day instructional week,” superintendent Chris Peterson said. “We have issued a teacher survey, we are having our meeting and following the meeting we will issue a parent and community member survey. What we want our community to know is ultimately this decision will be determined by the data we receive from our parents and community members.”

When starting the process of determining if Baxter would be a candidate for a four-day school week, district leaders looked at teacher retention as a strong factor for the move. By retaining staff, the district can continue to move forward with implementing high-level initiative without having to retrain new teachers each year, slowing the progress.

“The top answer you’re going to get is teacher attraction and retention. We are no different in this is one of our major rationals into looking into this move,” Peterson said. “I would also argue that teacher attraction and retention really ties back in to the quality of academics we provide to our kids.”

In the past three years, Baxter has seen the number of vacancies increase with 2024 having 14 openings. During that time, the turnover rate has hit 24 percent for the district.

“What we have noticed recently is a high level of turnover rate at Baxter,” Peterson said. “One of the reasons that came up over and over is teachers can get higher paying jobs in the Des Moines metro, Ankeny area.”

By implementing a four-day instruction week, research has found it reduces burnout, creates a greater work/life balance, improves student and staff mental health and creates a more positive culture.

To implement the four-day week, the district has looked at extending the school day by 40 minutes. It would run from 7:55 a.m. to 3:45 p.m.

“The bulk of the schools have found Mondays seem to work best or at least they are the most predominate,” Peterson said.

With such a big change being considered, research on major concerns districts have had prior to the move were also presented. The topics most brought up by other districts prior to transitioning included academic performance, daycare/child care, length of the school day, extracurricular activities and change.

The impact of the four day school week varies depending on a number of factors such as the number of student contact hours each week, the daily schedule and the demographics of the community.

ACADEMIC IMPACT

Research has found there is little to no negative impact on academic achievement. Districts that operate with 30 or more student hours per week showed no significant impact on student achievement. The only real changes were found in urban districts but in rural district it has little no effect. Other districts in Iowa have had no setbacks or decline academically but also cannot credit any gains to the change.

“That is important data for us. Baxter is obviously not an urban community and if we decide to moving forward we’re going to want to ensure we have at least 30 hours of student contact per week,” Peterson said.

FINANCIAL IMPACT

Moving to a four-day school week has no major impact on the districts cost savings. On average districts save 1 to 2 percent annual on expenditures.

OTHER IMPACTS

Peterson said it has been found that staff morale improves following the move. Districts have also seen fighting and bullying declines at the school level with the four-day week.

Currently 17 districts in Iowa use the four-day instruction week model. That number is up from just five last year.

EXPERIENCES OF OTHER DISTRICTS

Daycare, extracurricular activities and behavior and attendance were three big concerns of districts shareholders before moving to the four-day school week. Following the transition, the districts reported mostly positive outcomes with each topic.

“Every district listed daycare as a concern prior to transition. No districts listed daycare as an issue after implementation,” Peterson said. “Nearly all districts reported a decrease in discipline referrals as well as improved student and staff attendance.”

Extracurricular activities were a major concern prior to switching but once in the four-day week there were no issues reported.

“One district altered transportation for middle school students on Mondays off for practices/games but discontinued early due to non-use,” Peterson said. “All district reported positive feedback form community, students and staff after initial implementation no districts are discussing or considering a move back to the five-day week”

The next steps for the district include a parent and community member survey available at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/JMRXL6X. The survey is due back by Dec. 20.

“We’ll then share the initial information with the school board, probably in early January,” Peterson said. “We will then schedule a community Q&A meeting. We understand there will be a lot of questions about this, maybe a lot comments and concerns and we certainly want your input. Then, we’ll look to make a decision at our February or March school board meeting. Ultimately we want to come out with a decision that is right for the Baxter community.”