Blog #16 - Schools in Change

As factors such as declining enrollment, federal and state school aid cuts, and the recession effect local economies across the Midwest, schools are forced to make decision on how to keep within tighter and tighter budgets. One Minnesota school district has decided to reduce their school week to four days. Warroad school board vowed to cut its budget by $900,000 and $140,000 of that will come from cost savings but the reduced school week.

The Fargo Forum reported on the decision this week with a split vote of 4-2. Some of the other savings will come from position cuts.

The good news is that enrollment per grades has stabilized or increased from 75 to 95 students.

Other cities in Minnesota have made similar decisions - MACCRAY school district of Maynard of Clara City and Raymond we central Minnesota. The Warroad model was framed after Maynard. The students will attend school for 64 minutes more Monday through Thursday than they did Monday through Friday, and attend school for 144 days instead of 170.

Parent comments were mixed in this decision. They wonder what the children will be doing on their Fridays when both parents work. Phil Heppner, chairman of the school board, indicates that not all details are worked out – but they are committed to making it work.

I’ve also heard about 12 month schools across the U.S. Students may attend class for 4 months and have a month off. One SITE I found has blogs about a whole array of options for schools terms/years and tracks.

This is a very interesting discussion. More than once I’ve heard higher education employees say they would love to go to a four day work week and many classes are less than five days a week. So maybe higher education should be looking at the process. What would we be saving?