Four-day School Weeks Get Mixed Reaction in Putnam County

More schools may be moving to fourday weeks in the Midwest and South, but in the Putnam County region the jury is still out on the idea.

The Education Commission of the U.S. released its annual report last week, indicating that, of the 15,000-plus districts nationwide, more than 150 in 17 states currently use the four-day system in a shift they hope will help close budget gaping holes while staving off widespread teacher layoffs.

Minnesota and Iowa are currently drafting proposals for their state boards of education in the hopes of implementing four-day schedules in September.

Putnam-Northern Westchester BOCES Superintendent Dr. James Langlois is not impressed: “The problem of four-day school weeks is that they disrupt the flow of the educational process and learning, and they do it more for the children who are most at risk.”

Dr. Langlois explained, “Bright children learn all the time. They are at the computer. They read. Bright students often interact with their parents by participating in enriching cultural activities.”

The chief school administrator of the 18 component district BOCES network expressed concern for those students who struggle academically every day: “These are the children who will be hurt when more and more instructional time is taken away from them.”

Dr. Langlois also believes as a strategy, four-day school weeks make no sense: “Sure money can be saved by eliminating one day a week. More money can be saved by eliminating two days. We can end up with no public education at all and save a ton of money, but then what do we do? America finds itself at a crossroads where we are supposed to be ramping up our entire educational system to become better at the global competitiveness that must be achieved in the 21st century.”

Putnam Valley School District administrator Sam Oliverio admitted “loving the idea” of a four-day school week: “This would result in a learning curve because hours of each school day would have to be increased to make up the time children have to be in school.”

Oliverio believes a better plan would be to utilize schools throughout the year with intermittent breaks: “All students really need is a week off in June and a week’s recess in July and August. By keeping students in the classroom 12 months, learning previously achieved will not be forgotten, while school buildings will be better utilized—buildings taxpayers are paying for anyway.”