A four-day week?

• Four Day Week

Teacher Mary Miller helps a student in her eighth-grade math class in Round Lake. (Brian Korthals/Daily Globe)

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• MACCRAY's presentation on the four-day week

WINDOM — Three area school districts —Southwest Star Concept, Round Lake-Brewster and Windom — are considering implementing a four-day school week to help cut costs.

“The savings comes primarily from transportation and energy savings. We can recoup money from fuel prices, having heating and cooling savings in the two buildings,” explained SSC Superintendent Becky Cselovszki.

The measure is also being considered at RL-B, where Superintendent John Cselovszki said a shortened week may be the lesser of many evils in the face of reduced state funding.

“If we don’t do this we’re going to have to look at deeply cutting into programs. This would be a solution that hurts students the least,” he said.

In the Windom School District, Superintendent Wayne Wormstadt said the move could result in an estimated 1 to 3 percent savings on the district’s overall expenditures, but added that might not translate into dollar savings if prices increase.

“There’s a lot of things we could do before then; that would be the worst-case scenario,” he said.

In the SSC and RL-B districts, the new schedule could begin in the 2009-2010 school year.

“If you want to be proactive instead of reactive that should take place next year,” said John Cselovszki. Wormstadt is also trying to be proactive, taking cost-cutting measures in coming years to reduce the impact of a $2.6 million deficit the district could face by 2012 if no such measures are taken.

But all say they are proceeding with caution, researching the pros and cons of a four-day school week and talking to students, faculty and parents in the MACCRAY school district. MACCRAY, the Maynard-Clara City-Raymond consolidated school district in west central Minnesota, gained recognition this year for becoming the first district in the state to implement a four-day school week. The superintendents are also reviewing research from districts in other states.

“We’ve definitely looked at research from South Dakota schools that have been doing it a lot longer (than MACCRAY),” said Becky Cselovszki. “We feel this is a better option than increasing taxes or losing staff. Our research has shown that instructional time actually increases (with a four-day week). There’s no negative impact on student education.”

A subcommittee dedicated to the topic has suggested taking the research to the community, and Cselovszki expects a positive response in upcoming public meetings.

“Our community has been very supportive in the past of many changes we’ve made,” she said. The hope is to reach a decision by the late-April school board meeting and submit a request to the Minnesota Department of Education if the measure is approved.

Public meetings will also be scheduled in the RL-B district, where a subcommittee is looking into the issue. Superintendent John Cselovszki said he’s encouraged by the news out of the MACCRAY district.

“The (MACCRAY) community is more behind it now then when they were proposing it,” he said.

He added the subcommittee has not yet decided whether they will continue to pursue the change, but that “at least so far it looks very good.”

On the district’s Web site, he writes the measure could save an estimated $50,000 a year. In other schools with the four-day week schedule, student dropout rates have declined and student attendance has improved.

In Windom, Wormstadt said the idea is still in the early stages, and no formal motions have been made to the school board. He has been investigating how other communities have reacted to four-day week proposals and said an increased length in the school day and day care availability on the week day without school are common concerns. The board’s task is to determine whether savings for the district will be enough to offset potential problems, he said.

“You have to consider the community. Because it doesn’t affect students and staff, it affects the whole community,” he said. “It’s going to be a hot-button topic guaranteed. … It’s a massive change in schedule from what a community is used to.”

Tags: four-day week, round lake-brewster, southwest star concept, news, windom, budgetcuts, rl-b, ssc, education, school