With two school districts to its immediate west having implemented a four-day school week, the Wright City R-II School Board is revisiting a discussion about adopting the same approach.
During …
This item is available in full to subscribers.
We have recently launched a new and improved website. To continue reading, you will need to either log into your subscriber account, or purchase a new subscription.
If you are a digital subscriber with an active subscription, or you are a print subscriber who had access to our previous wesbite, then you already have an account here. Just reset your password if you have not yet logged in to your account on this new site.
If you are a current print subscriber and did not have a user account on our previous website, you can set up a free website account by clicking here.
Otherwise, click here to view your options for subscribing.
Please log in to continue |
With two school districts to its immediate west having implemented a four-day school week, the Wright City R-II School Board is revisiting a discussion about adopting the same approach.
During its monthly meeting on Oct. 22, the board addressed this possibility, evaluating feedback and data from surrounding districts. This isn’t the first time an abbreviated school week has come up in discussion, although it hasn’t been a board agenda for several years.
“We first started looking into the four-day week in 2011 and even hosted a town hall meeting to gauge interest,” said Superintendent Dr. David Buck. “Our parents, at the time, were very much against it. We haven’t discussed it at all since then.”
The topic was put to bed until this fall, with the neighboring Warren County R-III School District introducing its four-day week in August.
“It seems to have become a topic of discussion in the community again, so we wanted to revisit the idea for Wright City,” said Buck.
In 2011 R-II used Montgomery County schools as a model, considering the similarities in the districts. At the time there were just five schools in the state utilizing the four-day school week. The Lathrop School District was also a comparable district for Wright City, and its feedback was used in 2011 as well.
Still, data was fairly scarce eight years ago. That has changed drastically, with 11 percent of districts in the state now employing the four-day model.
“As we look at those schools, we know that Montgomery County is very happy with it,” said Buck. “Right now, we’re just watching and learning from Warrenton’s experience as well.”
He said there is no urgency for R-II to move into this model, as other districts have been prompted by budget or teacher retention concerns.
“Our teacher retention has been really high the last three years,” said Buck. “If we compare our district to St. Charles County and others around, we’re one of the highest. We haven’t had that issue. And budget-wise, we seem to be doing fine.”
The one remaining area of concern for Wright City is attendance, which seems to be a constant challenge. Buck said the district has experienced a quarter of a percent increase in attendance since the hiring of a truancy officer in late August. Still, there is a considerable deficit.
“We do have those attendance challenges, so that could definitely be a motivator for us,” said Buck. “We see with schools like Montgomery, they are seeing big improvements in attendance at the high school level.”
