Shorter school week

[Muttley]

Here in SK. our school division is considering having the school kids attend only four days a week instead of five. The school day will be longer as the hours per year must remain the same. Studies done have shown no academic advantage to this. Many of us as parents are concerned by having a longer day especially on younger kids. As well we feel children that require extra attention may well fall through the cracks.
We are given reasons such as more family time with our kids, they can obtain more employment by giving them a longer weekend, teachers will be more prepared and less stress. We have been told there will be no tax cuts, or teacher pay cuts, but will cut back on bus costs and janitoral.
If anybody has a opinion or is familiar with this please respond as we wish to be open minded but seem to be left out in the cold.

[jensco]

I've not been involved in a district that is doing this. The only thing I've been involved with is the shortening of the summer break and putting more holidays throughout the school year.

One big issue is always the Day care issue. Sure the older students may be able to go out and work 4 hours on their extra day (if they are lucky). However, is there enough day care space available for the younger students. Can families afford it? Greater family time is a nice thought, but I'm not sure most employers will be changing their establishments for the education system. That includes agriculture.

Sounds like you have more discussions in your future. I hope you can stay involved. Good luck!

[cowman]

I am not in Sask. and I only have one kid in the school system, but I think that is a ridiculous idea. My kids had to ride the bus for over an hour in the morning and afternoon and when they were real young they would often fall asleep on the bus. This all boils down to what is good for the teachers and the school board, not the kids.
In the school board I live in they have gone to an optional year round system that seems to work pretty well. The savings come from being able to utilize the school,people etc. the whole year instead of 10 months.
Incidently our teachers are now considering going on strike for a 20% increase! A teacher in Alberta with 10 yrs. experience makes $60,000 right now! I guess they figure if we can give the doctors and nurses 20% they should get it too. Sure wish I could have a 20% increase!

[Muttley]

We have been told that the one school division in Sk. that has the shorter week only saves the equivalent of one teachers wage per year. This broke down among all the schools is very small, we were not told how much. We had a information meeting in Davidson Sk. about it last week, they brought in the folks that are doing this now. They talked for about two hours on how it is supposed to work, people were writing notes to ask then the head of the division got up and said good-night there will be no questions. This really got people mad. My wife is a local school board rep and is against it without more info, our phone rings all evening with questions from concerned parents that she cannot answer. When she inquires to much she has been called stubborn and not willing to be open minded, she is not we are prepared to accept this but one must have their qustions answered when so many people are concerned. I am afraid that if it is a mistake my childrens education could be harmed for their entire life. I want our kids to be well educated so as to have the chance to do and be what ever they want and not have to settle for a job because of education. I farm but often wish that I had tried harder in school so that I could have maybe done something else.

[cowman]

Muttley: Guys like you and me really missed the boat! We picked an industry that doesn't seem to be going anywhere! We should have stayed in school and got on the old government tit! Then we could haul in the big bucks and not have to do very much! Have a four day/30 hr. week! Retire at 55 with a big pension!
My mother was a school teacher in the days of the one room school house. She sure never got no $60,000! She also never got any professional development days, a lucrative pension, or all the other perks. And yet she turned out a lot of success stories. When the local school board couldn't pay her she took a cutback. Something has really gone wrong in this country over the last thirty years or so. I don't know where we went so wrong, do you?

[jensco]

Maintaining an open-mind involves asking questions, getting answers and being informed. Without all the pertinent facts it is impossible to remain open-minded because there is too much doubt. If they cannot answer your questions then you cannot help but think there is a hidden agenda. Keep pushing for the data! You are on the right track, it sounds they need to adjust their attitudes.

Good luck! Jensco.

[poto]

I am directly involved in the consideration of the alternative school year (which you call the "shorter school week) in a Saskatchewan school division. The main reason that we are even considering this at all is to stop the erosion of classroom instructional time and thus to protect time spent on curriculum. Currently, instructional time is lost because of teacher planning, report cards, interviews, meetings, conventions, sporting division finals, field trips, teacher workshops, coaching, refereeing, winter carnivals, track meets, Christmas concert, graduation preparations and student medical appointments. With an alternative school year most if not all of these events will be held on Fridays therefore we will be protecting the instructional time. In adding 24 minutes to the school day from Monday to Thursday, our children will be in the classroom 14 days less than they are now but with fewer disruptions to student learning. We will be having public meetings in the new year. Our board is asking the public's input by having them fill out a survey in which they will acquire at the meeting ( in other words they must be present). The number of people for and against this will bear on the final decision. I am sorry to hear that not all of your questions were met at the public meeting. There will be some dollar savings with this as well. Savings will be realized by less janitorial, clerical, bussing and sub costs. I would also like to mention the study done on the school division which has been doing this for 5 years. 1) improved student attendance 2) longer days not detrement to student learning or attention 3) 90% plus in favor by teachers, students AND parents 4) improved quality of life . We are considering this because WE DO have our children's best interest in mind. In closing, if we proceed with this, we will re-evaluate in two years. Nothing is ever written in stone. This is change and people don't like change. I challenge everyone involved with this to get BOTH sides of the story because judging.
ps If this is implemented my children will be 53 hours less per year on the school bus!

[nakodo]

This is a great discussion (my wife is a teacher !).

I want to emphasize a point about our competitors around the world ie Japan, Thailand, Taiwan etc. with a Saturady school day.

To Quote Peter Lougheed 1988 in the Cdn Embassy in Japan to a group of Cdn. business people "Perhaps all Canadians should go to school for a 1/2 day on Saturday.... to study economics,..... so they can understand that more government services = higher taxes!"

[cowman]

Well Peter Lougheed should know as he sure expanded government services and ran up the tax bill!
We hear all the good things this four day week will do. For everyone! How about that little grade one kid who is already putting in a long day as it is? A lot of these kids have a long bus ride morning and night. Get on in the dark and soon get home in the dark.

[poto]

Dear cowman
My son is that little kid in Grade 1 who is riding the school bus for 85 minutes a day. If he gets on the bus 8 minutes earlier 4 days a week, has a lunch break that is 8 minutes shorter 4 days a week and gets home 8 minutes later four days a week then he has a WHOLE day more at home. As it is, I have no trouble getting my kids ready for the bus from Monday to Thursday; but by the time Friday comes along they are tired. There's no doubt about it.

[poto]

We'd love to have a four day school week. So much time is spent babysitting the kids at school and we can do a better job of that. We find if the kids are home for an extra day that by the end of the weekend they get along better, they are more settled and focussed. It gives them more time with the horses or cattle, more rest and they get more involved with the farm (which is not to say they do much more work, they just spend more time with us as we go about our day). Too much time is spent at school dealing with problems that often start at home and we'll gladly keep them at home and try to deal with the kids on our terms.

[cowman]

Well there it is! I guess you will decide what is best for you over there in Sask. I'm glad my kids are mostly grown up.

[yellow]

Poto, glad to see you saving so much on bussing, not to mention all the other services. I guess you will be buying a whole new fleet of busses and drivers to meet the Friday activities. Or maybe you expect those farmers that are driving busses to support their farms to work that "extra' longer day.

[yellow]

I can't see that it's so selfish to put the kids' interest ahead of the bus operators. We saw four day weeks in Alberta and the parents were happy because the doctor, dentist, optometrist, etc. appointments could be made without missing any school. Sports activities could be held Thursday evenings and it wasn't a factor the next day. Here we have weeknight hockey games and teenagers are getting to bed at midnight. We finally gave our kids one Friday off and I really doubt they missed more than two hours of quality instruction because of all the fluff that goes with socialization schools seem to be burdened with.

[jensco]

No one has answered the Day Care issue. Is that not a problem in Saskatchewan? Or do all families have at least one parent home. If so, that's great! I know here (MB) and ON, many work off the farm as well as on it.
Sometimes having the kids' interests first may impact the cash flow situation which again filters down to them.

Also, is two years enough time to determine if the new schedule is a good one?

Maybe as parent's we need to help our children make decisions about extra-cirricular activities. That is, maybe they need to do fewer things. Socialization involves making choices and saying "no" to things. We know this as adults and our children need to learn to be effective here as well.

I am glad to hear that there is lots of discussion planned. Hopefully, this will generate lots of input from all areas and everyone will feel comfortable with the outcome. We'll be looking forward to hearing what was decided and how it goes. Best wishes!