Has a 4-day school week paid off for a small Eastern WA district?
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Finley School District will extend its four-day week for two more years.
- District expects to save $200,000 in energy, staffing, transportation costs with schedule.
- Student absences and discipline are declining.
Finley School District will extend its four-day weekly class schedule for two more years as it tallies financial savings, improved student behavior and attendance, and overall positive feedback.
The schedule change that trades longer class times for Fridays off seems to be a boon for the small Benton County school district. It became the first in the Tri-Cities to adopt a four-day week in the fall.
It’s saved the district more than $176,000 from September to March, mostly in salary savings and substitute teacher costs. It’s also resulted in nearly $10,000 in energy savings.
The move was part of a strategy to help the district correct a $1 million budget gap.
“Our move to the four-day school week was initiated by the need to cut expenditures, and projected figures show we expect to save roughly $200,000 by the end of the fiscal cycle, which is a savings for our community and our schools” said Superintendent Bryan Long.
“We are also continuing to see excellent achievement out of our students — academically and socially. I’m proud to say it’s a resounding success,” he said.
There have been about 300 fewer teacher absences so far this school year, and student absences due to sports or activities are down 66%.
Behavioral referrals at River View High School have slightly declined, while the number of disciplinary meetings with parents at Finley Middle School has been cut in half.
Finley teaches about 875 K-12 students across three schools and employs more than 100 full-time teachers and staff.
The model allows the schools to condense 180 days of mandatory instruction into 153 days. OSPI allows up to 30 districts across the state with fewer than 1,000 full-time-equivalent students to waive and alter their calendars to account for the four-day school week or a similar schedule.
More instruction time
Finley middle and high school students are actually getting more instruction time — about 4,400 more minutes — as the district also dropped its early release Wednesday schedule.
But they’re liking the change so far, according to a recent survey of 66 freshmen and sophomores.
About 85% said they liked the four-day week either “a lot” or “somewhat,” and 65% agreed that the schedule still allows for enough time during the school week to learn classroom material.
Students say they are staying productive on their Fridays off, too.
While more than half said they use the day to relax, 40% said they also used the time to do sports or activities, and 36% reported studying or catching up on homework. More than a quarter of students used the time to work at a job.
They were also asked to name one thing they liked about the four-day school week. The responses varied:
- “I love that I can have one more day to do my work so on the weekend I can hang out with friends.”
- “I like that I get more time off and it helps with my stress more because I have a lot of stress.”
- “I like that I have more time to pick up on an extra shift at work.”
- “I get more sleep and I can get my homework done on time.”
- “I can spend the day with my dad.”
But students surveyed said they also were not a fan of the longer hours, said they were still adjusting to the schedule, or that they didn’t like it because it cut into after school activities. With the extra time, they also suggested making lunches longer, implementing more breaks, or having more school events and assemblies.
Long acknowledged there have been some hiccups with the transition. Schools are still acclimating to their new schedules, and there have been some curriculum modifications to account for the time changes. He expects those challenges will eventually be ironed out, though.
The last day of school for Finley students is Thursday, June 18.
