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4-day school weeks attracting educators to rural Iowa
Child care ‘a hot topic’ for parents, but providers say it hasn’t become issue
Apr. 10, 2023 6:00 am, Updated: Apr. 10, 2023 8:21 am
A mobile coffee shop in Southeast Iowa started with a dream, a Keurig and a school shifting to a four-day week.
Julie Klett, a special-education teacher at WACO Community School District in Wayland, was intrigued by the idea of teaching only four days a week when she began working for the district seven years ago.
As a teacher, she wanted to help her students with disabilities gain some employment skills, she said. The students started serving coffee to teachers during the school day, using a Keurig to brew the coffee. From there, the makeshift shop grew with students serving coffee at concession stands to staff and students.
Last year, Klett opened a mobile coffee trailer, called JT’s Sips, with Tina Conwell, who previously worked as a paraeducator for WACO schools. The four-day school week was a huge reason she was able to launch her own business, Klett said.
"We bring joy to people one sip at a time,“ Klett said. ”I love teaching. I love JT’s Sips, and without the four-day week, I don’t think I would have considered adding more to my plate.“
The WACO Community School District first shifted to a four-day school week a decade ago for the 2013-14 school year. Students attend class Monday through Thursday. They spend an hour longer in school each day to meet the state’s requirements to have at least 1,080 instructional hours a year.
Since then, three other school districts have joined WACO in the four-day school week experiment. School officials are finding it makes it easier to recruit and retain educators, especially in rural communities where it’s hard to attract new talent. Educators in these districts said research shows the change does not affect students’ test scores.
The length of the school year is roughly the same as other districts across Iowa — with students beginning school in late August and getting out for summer break at the end of May. The schools also have about a two-week winter break and a spring break.
School officials in the Iowa City Community School District last year initiated a conversation about the benefits and challenges of a four-day school week. The school board has not revisited that conversation since March 2022. However, Superintendent Matt Degner told The Gazette school officials are continuing to study the possibility and plan to have more conversations about the option.
There are about 500 students enrolled in WACO schools.
Grace Coble, 17, a senior at WACO High School, said having a four-day school week opens up opportunities for students to work part-time jobs on their day off and gives them a weekend to spend time with their family and friends.
Coble is gaining workforce learning skills at her part-time job at Wildfire Creative Branding, a marketing company with a branch in Washington, about 11 miles from Wayland. She is planning to study agricultural marketing in college and is gaining valuable experience, she said.
Rural schools ‘stay competitive’ with four-day school weeks
WACO High School Principal Tim Bartels — who began working for the school five years ago — said he was partially attracted to the district because of its four-day week schedule.
Over the years, Bartels said the district has been able to more easily fill vacant teaching positions, and applicants mention the four-day school week drew them to opening. This year, Bartels said, one open teaching position received 14 applications.
This is especially notable with fewer people entering the profession nationwide. There’s about 20 percent fewer people going to college for education degrees since 2000, according to Pew Research Center.
Cardinal Community School District Superintendent Joel Pedersen said the switch to a four-day school week this year was to “stay competitive” with larger schools in more urban areas that can offer higher salaries to staff. Earlier this year, the school board approved continuing the four-day model for the 2023-24 school year. There are about 1,060 students in Cardinal schools, which is in Eldon.
Moving to a four-day school week — while offering the same amount of instructional time as every other school district in Iowa — means about 18 fewer days staff are contracted to work, Pedersen said.
The district also increased the hourly salary of support staff like paraeducators, bus drivers and food service workers so they would earn the same amount of money during a four-day school week they did during a five-day week.
Pedersen said he thinks it’s working. So far, the district has hired 12 new staff for next year and only has two open positions left to fill.
Other school districts in Iowa following a four-day-a-week schedule are Mormon Trail Community School District in Wayne County and Moulton-Udell Community School District in Moulton.
Pat Evans, Mormon Trail school board president, said the switch was not only to attract educators, but also students through open-enrollment.
“We were losing kids to other districts,” Evans said.
Child care ‘a hot topic’ but no increase in demand
Child care providers in areas where schools shifted to four-day school weeks were ready to respond to an increase demand for care — but none came.
Child care providers, educators and residents said many families already had contingencies for days when children weren’t in school during the week, including grandparents watching the kids and high school students earning money babysitting.
When WACO schools first shifted to a four-day school week, child care was offered to families on Fridays through the district. The child care option was discontinued after just two years because of lack of attendance.
Child care is “a hot topic” for a lot of school districts considering switching to shortened school weeks, said Sandy Vantiger, a junior high teacher at WACO. “It works itself out,” she said. “The school district offered the most affordable child care parents could find — it was ridiculously cheap — but it became a non-issue.”
Shari Janecek, an in-home child care provider in Wayland, said she doesn’t recall receiving additional inquiries for child care when the district switched to shortened weeks.
“Some people were really leery about the switch and did wonder about child care,” Janecek said. “Everybody figured it out.”
Garrett Ross, chief executive officer of the YMCA in Ottumwa, about 10 miles from Cardinal schools, said the YMCA offered child care options to families at the beginning of the 2022-23 school year, but there was a lack of interest.
Families had found other child care options. While a “handful” of kids still go to the YMCA for child care, Ross said the organization discontinued its extended program created in response to Cardinal schools’ changing school schedule.
Educators find ‘work-life balance’
Shelby Shull, a sixth grade science and literacy teacher at Cardinal, said the shortened workweek is helping with teacher burnout. Cardinal schools are in session Tuesday through Friday.
“A lot of teachers, including myself, stay after school multiple days a week or have to take work home. You’re working extra hours and weekends. With Monday off from school, you’re able to use that for planning, grading or going to an appointment,” Shull said.
Teachers are not paid to work during their Mondays off as it is not part of their contracted hours. But Shull said it “eliminates always working at night and on the weekends.”
“Work-life balance has been something I’ve been able to get a better handle on,” Shull said. “Now I can spend quality time with family and not feel bad about playing with my daughter.”
Community solutions
Living Hope Bible Church in Eldon has been working with Cardinal schools for over a decade to send home food to families in need, especially over the weekend when kids don’t have access to school meals.
Pastor Mark Clark said the church has increased the number of items they send home with families each weekend to accommodate for three-day weekends.
The church supports the food pantry through regular financial contributions from parishioners — about $5,000 a year. This year, they’ve been sending 55 bags of food home each week.
Families can self-identify to the school as needing assistance to qualify for the program.
Comments: (319) 398-8411; grace.king@thegazette.com
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