NAMPA, Idaho — On Tuesday the Nampa School District gave research and pros and cons to its school board on a move to four-day school weeks.
- Pros and cons were laid out by the superintendent and deputy superintendent.
- Special education, athletics, curriculum, retention, attendance, and others were all compared when discussing the move to a four-day school week.
Editor’s Note: The video in this article has been corrected to point out the board has not made its recommendation yet. A spokesperson for the school district says the board will consider the four-day week and may or may not take action during a later meeting.
(Below is the transcript from the broadcast story)
More talk on school schedules for Nampa. On Tuesday the Nampa School District gave researched pros and cons to its school board on a possible move to four-day school weeks. Let's take a look at some of the pros and cons outlined by the superintendent:
For special education departments, students would have more time with family and there would be more time for outside appointments.
Challenges for those programs would be an increase in childcare costs for parents, fewer days of contact time with teachers, and physical and occupational therapists. Those specialists could also be able to be contracted at another district, opening up more availability to other schools that don’t currently have those specialists.
From the curriculum, the move to a 4-day school week would allow a chance to dive deeper into the curriculum with a change in class time duration. Teachers would have time for creative lesson planning and professional development.
Assessments could be affected with fewer days with students seen by teachers to complete the assessments as well as fewer language screeners for English language learner students.
By having students be out of the building for an additional day during the week, maintenance and building projects would be able to be completed during the school year and not need to be contracted out.
The District made it clear: This decision would not be in an effort to save money. One of the largest benefits that the District would see would be staff retention. Feedback from other Idaho districts, Middleton, Blackfoot, and Post Falls, said that their moves to 4-day weeks were an overall benefit to staff.
