NEW BLOOMFIELD - Wednesday night's forum at New Bloomfield High School proved heated as parents, faculty and Board of Education members discussed a potential districtwide switch to a four-day school week.
"There's pros and cons for sure," agreed Paul Cloudwright, principal for New Bloomfield's middle and high schools.
First publicly proposed during November's New Bloomfield R-3 Board of Education meeting, the idea originated from teachers on the calendar committee. A survey found 88 percent of the district's teachers were interested in looking into a four-day work week, while another survey sent to district patrons found 50 percent supportive, 18.6 percent neutral, 17.6 percent opposed and 13.8 percent undecided.
Wednesday's forum was the first opportunity for parents to publicly voice their opinions. The discussion continued at Thursday evening's Board of Education meeting. Currently, Board of Education members plan to vote on the matter at their Jan. 16 meeting.
Though nothing is set in stone, a switch to a four-day week would see students staying in school about 20 minutes longer per day but attending 13 fewer days per year. In total, students would have 52 fewer hours in class in the 2019-20 year.
New Bloomfield's administrators are positioning the switch as a non-monetary way to appeal to and retain good teachers.
"We're kind of a stepping stone for new teachers," Superintendent Sarah Wisdom said. "We hire a lot of great teachers and for the most part they've left us for somewhere where they'll get better pay."
Currently, New Bloomfield's pay is the fourth-highest in its nine-member conference. To tie with first-place South Callaway, the district would have to pay out an additional $286,000 per year. However, as Wisdom and teachers pointed out, the district isn't just competing within its conference for applicants.
"When I graduated from (University of Missouri), my classmates came from all over the place and were looking at districts all over Missouri," said Cole Jost, a first-year middle school teacher. "I could've gone back to my hometown, Troy, and made $9,000 more per year. I decided to stay here because I like the area, but other new teachers don't have that connection."
Matching the nearby Jefferson City School District for pay would cost the district nearly half a million dollars annually. Even if the district increased its taxes to the maximum legally allowed rate, that's not feasible, Wisdom said. And Missouri pays teachers less on average than 47 other states.
Not only does the district regularly lose teachers to other districts, it also attracts relatively few applications for posted openings. Wisdom's data show that in the 2011-12 school year, the district received 88 applications for seven open positions. That ratio drops steadily, until in the 2019-20 year, the district received only 24 applications for 11 open spots.
"Some of those openings only had one or two applications," Wisdom said.
North Callaway R-1 is the nearest school district with a four-day schedule. Its base pay is slightly lower than New Bloomfield's, but in 2019-20, the district received 253 applications for 24 open positions.
"We want to hire the very best teachers we can for our kids," Wisdom said. "To do that, we need applicants to pick from."
This aspect is especially important this year, as the district will see six veteran teachers retiring within the next year, she added.
In preparing for the forum, Wisdom and fellow administrators spoke to leaders at other Missouri districts that have made the switch. That includes 61 districts so far, though more are contemplating it. Their research found districts making the switch tended to see little difference in academic achievement and an increase in student and teacher attendance.
Existing teachers promised they aren't planning on using their Mondays to watch Netflix.
"I would volunteer to come in on Mondays," high school English teacher Julie Morris said. "I'd use that time for grading and lesson planning. We're asking for time to do teacher stuff so we're not doing that after work (rather than) spending time with our families."
For answers to more frequently asked questions about how a four-day week affects districts, visit this article: bit.ly/2PRh778.
Wisdom's presentation was followed by an open forum with parents. For part two of the story, see Sunday's Fulton Sun.