Foes sound off on four-day week

Despite approval Tuesday from the West Glacier school board, the four-day school week is receiving mixed reviews from the West Glacier community.

Trustees voted 2 to 1 Tuesday to implement a four-day week beginning next fall. Carla Martin and newly sworn-in trustee Jill Wiegand voted in favor of the proposal; board chairman Casey Heupel opposed it.

School staffers have voiced support for the four-day week and most of the 18 families whose children attend the school support the new schedule.

But not everyone in West Glacier thinks the four-day week is a good idea.

Karol Brown, a community member whose son isn't yet old enough to attend school, presented a petition signed by 50 people who oppose the four-day week at Tuesday's board meeting.

Most of them are West Glacier residents who don't have children in the school. One parent who signed the petition has a child at West Glacier but doesn't live in the district, Principal Cortni King said.

Based on a survey King conducted earlier this spring, that parent is in the minority at West Glacier School. Three of the 18 families whose children attend the school were indifferent about moving to a four-day week. Initially two families opposed it, but one family later said it supported the schedule change, King said.

Thirteen families have said yes from the beginning - seven of them emphatically so.

The school also talked to families with up-and-coming kindergartners. Several of them said they support the four-day week, King said.

Brown does not.

At an April meeting, she said her son would not be able to attend West Glacier if the school moved to the new schedule because she wouldn't be able to find appropriate day care for him on Fridays.

She said in a phone interview Friday that she and the parent who opposed the four-day week would not send their children to the school. That parent has three children, Brown said.

Since the district receives about $4,700 per student from the state, this amounts to an $18,800 loss of funding for the school. Brown questions why school officials are doing it when it will cost the district money.

But school officials have said that some families whose children don't currently attend West Glacier have expressed an interest in attending the school once it implements the four-day schedule. And while potential savings may have initiated the four-day week conversation, the district isn't making the switch to save money, King said.

West Glacier originally began considering a four-day week as a possible way to save money, but actual savings would be negligible. The school will save about $700 a year in utilities, and its custodial position will be cut by 20 percent. Total savings will be about $5,000 - which will be canceled out if the district loses just one student.

Trustees debated what would happen if the school lost students after switching to the new schedule, King said. The board ultimately decided that it needed to listen to the families that supported the four-day week.

But it isn't just parents with children at West Glacier Elementary who have an interest in the school, and several of those people signed Brown's petition. Gail Jokerst said she saw the proposal as "lose-lose."

If West Glacier extended the school day, that would be tough on young students, she said in a phone interview Thursday. If the district didn't extend the day, Jokerst said she questioned the point of a four-day week.

"It'd be cheating the kids of their education," she said. "Who is it really benefiting?"

The master schedule is not yet finalized, but King has said the four-day week will add about 70 minutes of daily instructional time.

The length of time students spend on school grounds won't change much; the bus already drops kids off at about 7:40 a.m. and picks them up at about 3:45 p.m. The current school day is from 8 a.m. to 3:15 p.m.

Some community members have questioned whether additional class time each day can replace a full instructional day. Delores Mollberg, who signed Brown's petition, said students should be in school all week.

"I just think kids belong in school. They love it there," she said in a phone interview Thursday.

Heupel said Wednesday that community members' concerns influenced his vote. Brown's petition "brought forward the voices of the community members, and even if they don't have kids [in school], they still have concern about how the school is operated," he said.

King said Thursday that while she appreciates community members' concern for students and is grateful for their tax support, the district needs to listen to its primary "customers' - families with kids at the school.

Moving to a four-day week "is not going to impact the taxes of any of the people that signed the petition. Therefore, I think the voices we need to listen to are our constituents," she said. "To me, that's who we are serving."

Trustees and school staff will evaluate the new schedule throughout the 2009-10 school year, Heupel said. If the schedule doesn't work, a board vote could reverse Tuesday's decision.

Heupel said he anticipates discussing the four-day week at each month's board meeting.

"We do want to keep special eye on it and pay special attention to students to see how they are handling the school day," he said. "If we are going to implement anything, I want it done right."

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com