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Four-day school week?
Whitehall School District is looking at adopting the four-day school week as a possible way to reduce expenses while effectively delivering excellent education.
There is an advisory committee that meets monthly to work on this issue. The role of the committee is to research, investigate and commuicate findings to the school board. The meetings are open to the community, and the next meeting is scheduled for March 25th, 6:30pm in Ms. Harper's classroom. Join us!
If you have questions or comments, please email us! Meeting minutes will be posted on this site if you want to keep track of the group's progress. Current committee members are: Pat Audet, Doug Richards, Luann Carroll, Dan Reum, Bridget Morse, Cory Fitzgerald, Mark Reinschmidt, John Patritti, Pat Schaaf, Tom Wheeler, Lora Griffin, and Holly Harper.
Here is a the progression of events regarding this issue in Whitehall Schools.
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April 1st, 2008 School Board Meeting: committee will give recommendation adn teacher letters to the board regarding next year's calendar, and the board will make a decison for or against adopting the 4-day week for next year.
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March 25th open committee meeting 6:30pm in Ms Harper's classroom: create recommendation based on committee research and information, and available teacher letters, to be given to school board at the regular April meeting.
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March 19th: public Q&A regarding 4-day week in the MS library at 6:30pm, hopefully televised!
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Week of March 17th: Parent Link Newsletter special edition about the Four Day Week sent home to school families.
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March 3rd, 6:30pm in Ms Harper's classroom in the high school: Finance overview of potential savings and decisions to be made about where to save money (more than 20 people were here!).
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February 21st, after school in the MS library: Teacher meeting to field questions and discuss concerns regarding the Four-Day week. This meeting aired some concerns and hopes for teh four-day week. Teachers are being encouraged to write letters to the school board or the committee (or both) that share their ideas about the potential schedule change.
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February 9th: surveys sent home in the Parent Link Newsletter and in the Feb 6th edition of the Ledger. Survey due back to school Feb 29th.
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May 15th, 2007 the calendar was decided by the board. They decided to maintain the traditional calendar for 07-08, but to continue to investigate other options.
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In April 07 the teachers were asked to give input on the 4-day week: 33 of 43 staff returned ballots, and 22 were in favor of looking at the 4-day week
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A public forum was held March 27, 2007 in the Commons, and about 30 community members were in attendance. Notes from this forum are posted, and those notes will include the questions raised by community members and the research-based answers to those questions, whenever available.
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In February a poll of the teachers indicated that a high majority of teachers are in favor of the four-day week as the best method of saving money.
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In February a presentation was made to the school board about the benefits and drawbacks to the four-day schedule.
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