NEW BLOOMFIELD, Mo. - New Bloomfield R-3 will host a public forum to discuss potentially switching to a four-day school week.
"We'll share some statistics on the four-day week and how it'll work," Superintendent Sarah Wisdom said. "We're going to have a panel with myself, a principal and two teachers who'll field questions."
The forum is planned for 6 p.m. today at the New Bloomfield High School cafeteria. Despite snow lingering on the ground, Wisdom said a cancellation due to weather is unlikely as no more precipitation is in the forecast.
The topic of a four-day week came up during November's Board of Education meeting. Members of the calendar committee, comprised of eight volunteer faculty members, first floated the idea while planning the 2020-21 district calendar. A committee-conducted survey showed 88 percent of teachers wanted to look into a four-day work week, which would see slightly extended school days Tuesday through Friday, Wisdom said.
"It's not about cost-saving for us," Wisdom said in November. "You're going to gain some cost-saving, but that's not the driving force for us. The driving force, honestly, is retaining and obtaining quality teachers. Being a smaller district and not being able to compete with the Jefferson Cities and Columbias, we lose a lot of teachers based on pay."
Late last month, Wisdom distributed a parent survey and an FAQ sheet throughout the district. Results from the survey will be presented at tonight's meeting and at Thursday evening's Board of Education meeting.
"We had 318 responses with 50 percent supportive, 18.6 percent neutral, 17.6 percent opposed and 13.8 percent undecided," Wisdom said.
The survey also allowed parents to ask questions; Wisdom anticipates she and the other panel members will receive similar questions at the meeting.
"Child care seems to be the No. 1 question, along with how it affects the students," she said.
The district's FAQ sheet touches on those concerns (read more about it here: bit.ly/2PRh778), as will tonight's forum.
Wisdom expects a decision on the four-day week in January.
"This is the only public forum we're planning right now," she said. "We also have board meetings, where anyone can come and voice opinions during open sessions. I'm not looking for the board to vote this month. They still need time to process information and take in survey results."
Taking in parent and guardian feedback is an important part of the decision process, she said.
"We see there's pros and cons of this for sure; we see both sides of it," Wisdom said. "We're just trying to gather information and educate ourselves to make the best decision for their kids."