4 Day School Week

How do you cut a budget by $350,000?  How can we provide an education to our children when we are looking at having cut a total of $1.25 million dollars from 2007-2011?  I don't have kids in school yet, but I still attended a meeting last night about the budget cuts that are facing our school district.  I attended because I will have kids in school and because Cross Country is on the possible list of cuts.

I guess I ride the fence on how to cut a budget.  Both of my parents are teachers.  Their blood, sweat, and tears are on the floor of their classroom.  No matter what the cuts are somebody will lose their job or lose pay.  In this economy, you can bet people aren't getting raises.  I'm sure this does not boost employees morale in their job.  But what if, the place you work needed to cut the budget and immediately your job and wages are talked about.  It doesn't matter how hard you work or how long you've been there, people immediately think you can take a pay cut.  If we want the best teachers for our kids, how can we expect them to put in the time and effort if they feel they aren't being rewarded or at least appreciated by everyone.

Would you take a pay cut?  In the form of property tax increases?  That's another way to look at it.  The school board from my high school struggled for 10+ years to pass a bond issue for a new school.  It was defeated over and over because nobody wanted to pay the property tax increase. Finally, the oldest school was condemned and kids ended up going to classrooms at a local church and having to walk over to the school for lunch etc. The bond finally passed but not without a crazy couple years as they had to make do without a building.  In this case, property tax increases aren't an option for our school district.  We passed an increase in the levy in November and now have an $800+ levy.  To make up for the budget cut we would have had to double the levy to $1700.  I'm not sure anyone wanted to double the levy and it would have been defeated.  So now we are faced with budget cuts.  And they will continue...

What's on the list?

• 4 Day School Week
• Pay Freeze for all employees
• Retirement Buy Outs
• Programs including (but not all)- art in the elementary school, industrial arts department, cross country, late shuttle bus, study center at the high school

The biggest part of the meeting was what a 4 day school week would look like.  It is an application process to the Minnesota Department of Education for a 3 year term.  It would save roughly $100,000 a year.  If the pay freeze goes through it would save another $100,000 and then retirement buy outs would finish out the $350,000 needed.  If the pay freeze doesn't go through it would require cutting a lot of smaller programs to get to the necessary amount.

What do I think about 4 day school weeks?  Fine for me, I am a stay at home mom who is highly involved in my child's education and life.  We could make it work and probably have a great time doing it.  My child wouldn't be getting on the bus earlier because we live across the street.  (The school day would start around 8 with children getting on the bus hopefully no earlier than 6:35 and ending the school day at 4pm).  It could work for my family, but that's just the logistics.  What about their education?  They will be getting the same number of classroom hours (actually a slight increase) as the 5 days a week. But can you honestly teach a kindergarten student from 8am to 4pm and expect them to learn as much as a 5 day week?  Kindergarten isn't fun and games anymore!  (Good thing we decided to wait to send our son to school.)  Will teachers work to change their curriculum to make sure they are getting in the extra work each day to make up for the 5th day you aren't in class?  Will they follow through with the promise from the superintendent to not just load kids up with homework to do on Monday since they wouldn't be in school?

What kind of problems does this change in education bring up?  Lots.  What if your schedule at work isn't flexible?  What if you can't get into the daycare all day on Mondays?  My pastor of a hubby brought up some thoughts that others maybe didn't think of.  It's not just about day care.  What about those kids whose parents aren't involved in their education?  They exist everywhere.  Who is going to watch these kids on Monday?  Another concern is food.  1 in 8 children goes hungry in Minnesota.  The food they get at school could be the best/only two meals they get a day.  We will have to address those children who aren't helped enough by their parents.  The school provides stability to so many kids.  It's not just how much class time they get.  It's the fact that somebody is looking out for these kids because their parents are not.

The 4 day school week does have it's benefits.  The increase of classroom hours.  High schoolers would go about 40 more hours total a year.  It reduces cost for hourly employees, those that are contracted for student days only, fuel oil to heat the building, other transportation costs and sub costs.  (There are many other things).  The few schools in Minnesota that do this (maybe 3?) have said you can see a decrease in missed school days, which means the kids are getting more time in the class room.  Teachers and employees are missing less school because they have a day during the week to get things done (doctors appointments etc.)

In the end (if you made it this far) the school board has a big decision not to be taken lightly. It involves being good stewards of everything... our children, the money, the employees, and the future of the school district.  I'm not sure if I'm strongly for or strongly against anything on the list.  Many of the things on the list of cuts benefit the kids but we don't have the luxury of using that as a reason to keep the programs.  I hope this community is open minded and praying.