Pass or fail? A Tri-Cities school district grades its new 4-day week
For Madilynn Garza, having an extra day on the weekend helps when making plans and getting her work done.
And instead of being in class Friday morning at River View High School, she’s working a job at her church.
“I’m still very productive on my Fridays. But instead of school work... It’s simple yard work or helping others,” said the sophomore.
For Leah Whitworth, also a sophomore, having her Fridays free means locking in on school work.
But balancing school, cheer and volleyball this fall has also been a cram. When things get too busy, that time has been useful for her to “desocialize” — to recharge her battery away from her beloved teammates and classmates.
“It’s been pretty hard. It’s been keeping me really busy,” Whitworth said of her schedule. “But having that Friday, not as a rest day but more like a mental health day, has been helping me.”
Finley School District’s new four-day school week is getting an A+ grade from many returning teachers, students and staff.
It’s been a small adjustment, but all who spoke to the Herald during a recent visit said they’re faring well with the new schedule that trades longer class times for an extra weekend day.
“The kids are coming back refreshed, they’re come back willing to be here on Monday,” said English teacher Shari Van Steenkist, who started her teaching career five years ago during COVID.
“It seems like we’ve had fewer disciplinary issues already this year. I myself, just having more time away from them — more time with my own kids, my own family — I’m more refreshed and willing to put up with their idiosyncrasies here,” she said with a chuckle.
Rising popularity of 4-day weeks
Four-day schedules have risen in popularity since 2008, when many rural districts cut costs in the wake of the Great Recession, according to Education Week.
Finley’s motive for the move is similar.
The reduced schedule is expected to save the Benton County district hundreds of thousands of dollars — mostly through substitute staffing, utilities, food services and classified staffing — as the district had to cut $1 million this school year due to economic pressures and stagnant revenues.
Washington’s education department, the Office of Superintendent of Public Schools, allows up to 30 school districts, each with fewer than 1,000 full-time students, to apply for a waiver to cut up to 27 school days.
At least 18 districts have been approved for the four-day schedule throughout the state. Across the nation, at least 900 school districts have adopted similar truncated schedules, according to a 2023 Associated Press report.
River View High School Principal Chris Davis said it’s a popular in Eastern Oregon, Utah and Colorado. He previously worked at Morrow County School District in Heppner, Oregon, which also operates on a four-day calendar.
But it will be unique to Benton and Franklin counties.
Three-quarters of parents surveyed in a RAND report said they were satisfied with the abbreviated calendar, while 70% of teachers surveyed said they were supportive, according to Education Week.
Schools have also used the schedule as a boon for teacher recruitment and to help retain burned-out educators who are taking more days off to recover.
‘The pace has changed’
Finley School District teaches about 900 K-12 students across three schools and employs more than 100 teachers and staff, according to budget documents.
Finley Elementary School is in class from 8 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. while Finley Middle School and River View are in class 7:55 a.m. to 3:25 p.m.
The model allows the schools to condense 180 days of mandatory instruction into 153 days. In reality, high school students will get more instruction time since the district opted to drop early-release on Wednesdays.
“I think the pace has changed,” Davis said. “I notice it with the kids and everybody, from office staff to teachers.”
He said there’s been “very few concerns” from parents or the community since they announced the shift, and scheduling conflicts with sports haven’t surfaced yet. Davis also hasn’t heard any issues of families struggling to find childcare.
“I’ve sent stuff out to parents already, ‘Hey, let’s plan on (scheduling appointments on) Fridays. We need your kids here the four days of the week that we have them,’” Davis said.
At River View, class periods grew from 54 minutes to 65 minutes.
Van Steenkist said the hardest part of the transition has been getting used to standing for seven hours instead of six. But that extra time has helped them foster a more holistic and in-depth education environment.
“It’s easier to, (after) students get derailed, get the class back on task and not feel rushed,” she said.
An “odd phenomenon” Van Steenkist has noticed is more students are now willing to get back on task with the expanded class time than without it.
“Ten minutes doesn’t seem like a lot when you’re spending time with a friend, but 10 minutes with a classroom is a world of difference,” she said.
Her juniors and seniors right now are reading Beowulf, an epic poem Van Steenkist said has opened some reading comprehension gaps among students. The extra time is great because it allows the class space to pause and open discussion about the text.
Kris Welch, River View’s head football coach and the school’s weight training teacher, said the extra day has given some relief to his athletes and students.
“I really like the four-day school week schedule,” said Welch, who graduated from River View in 2011. “It’s able to offer something that other districts around the area don’t offer.”
Bus rides to other schools can take up to 3 hours. Kids don’t have to worry about making up class time during Friday matches, Welch said.
Since he had the day off, Welch was able to take his 6-year-old to his first day of kindergarten.
“I’ve had some (students) that are planning their work schedules for that Friday,” he said.
‘It does make me want to come to school’
Both classified staff and teachers don’t work on Fridays. But one day each month, teachers will come in for professional learning communities or other training.
Van Steenkist said there’s less “mom guilt.” She’s been able to get chores and errands out of the way earlier, and spend quality relaxing time with her family.
“Sunday in particular, we hung out at home and watched football. There was no folding laundry between plays, prepping lunch for the week while everything was going on,” she said. “It was just time with my family, watching football... I’m all for this being our new normal.”
No surprise, students at River View are also loving an extra long weekend. They’re filling that extra time with family and friends, on school work, chores, their studies, at FFA, sports, traveling or on hobbies.
According to the RAND study, about 85% of high school students on an abbreviated schedule said they “like it a lot.”
“It’s better to have that one extra day so that you can restart and not dread going to school because you have so much work to do. It does make me want to come to school,” said sophomore Mekdes Kronberg.
Classes don’t feel much longer, either, the students say, and they’ve heard from jealous peers in neighboring school districts about the shortened week.
If the school district proposed Mondays or Thursdays off too, students said, well, they would be hard-pressed to turn them down.
