Fair-Mont-Egan will move to a four-day school week

Fair-Mont-Egan School is moving to a four-day week next school year.

It’s the fourth school in Flathead County to do so, following in the footsteps of other rural schools including West Glacier, Olney-Bissell and Pleasant Valley.

The rural K-8 school, located on Fairmont Road in Kalispell, will be in session Mondays through Thursdays starting in the 2023-24 school year. The school day will be extended by about 35 minutes, with some extra school days built in to meet state requirements, according to Superintendent and Principal Brandy Carlenzoli.

In Montana, schools must provide a minimum of 1,080 hours of instruction for grades fourth through 12th. For first through third grade, 720 hours of instruction are required. Kindergarten requires either 360 or 720 hours, depending on if a program is part-time or full-time.

The school’s teachers will also work two Fridays a month for four hours.

Start and dismissal times and a school calendar are expected to be on the March 20 school board agenda. The school board meeting begins at 6 p.m. at the school.

The number of Montana schools moving to modified schedules has been on the rise over the past several years, according to the Office of Public Instruction, which lists schools on four-day weeks, dating back to the 2016-17 school year.

At Fair-Mont-Egan, the discussion of moving to a four-day school week began in January, Carlenzoli said, gaining unanimous board approval the following month.

Carlenzoli, who is in her first year as superintendent and principal, joined the staff from a previous administrative position at a K-12 charter school. She wasn’t familiar with schools operating on a four-day week until she talked to Olney-Bissell Principal Trevor Dahlman.

Olney-Bissell made the switch to a four-day week in the 2018-19 school year with goals to improve student attendance and professional development and serve as an incentive for staff recruitment and retention.

“A four-day week is a really big recruiting pitch for us,” Dahlman said.

At first, Dahlman said he wasn’t in favor of a four-day week after a community member suggested the idea of a modified schedule.

“But the more and more I thought about it and the community we live in — we like to hunt, like to ski, we do a lot of outdoor stuff ... I pitched the idea to the staff,” he said.

It made more sense as he factored in absences related to sports teams traveling to games and families often scheduling appointments on Fridays.

“We went ahead and did it and it’s been great for our district,” he said.

CARLENZOLI FOLLOWED a similar process of pitching the idea to staff and holding community meetings.

“I started talking to a few staff members at a time, getting their take on if this was something we could do,” Carlenzoli said.

Surveys were made available to students, staff and community members and results were favorable. There were 98 out of 113 students who completed a survey, of which, 77% responding favored the four-day option. Ninety-four percent of staff members surveyed supported a four-day week.

Fair-Mont-Egan listed similar priorities as Olney-Bissell in its decision to change the school week. Carlenzoli also emphasized the importance of dedicating more time to professional development, which she believes goes hand-in-hand with improving student achievement. Teachers would come in to work two Fridays a month for four hours to meet, plan and collaborate.

“We’ve really started moving the needles,” Carlenzoli said regarding test scores, reading in particular. “We want to continue that in math.”

She said teachers will continue to monitor student academic progress on a weekly basis in addition to looking at state standardized test scores.

One of the concerns that have been raised with a four-day week is whether or not teachers can get through all the academic material to meet state standards.

Olney-Bissell fourth-grade teacher Shianne Schmidt said during the school’s transition there was a lot of upfront work in the first year.

“The biggest challenges were fitting in the curriculum and our lessons across four days versus five. We had to rewrite pacing guides and lesson plans to fit in the year in the blocks [of time] we were given,” Schmidt said, later adding, “At first it was a struggle how to fit it in, but the longer days allow us to go more in-depth.”

With longer blocks of time given to each subject, Dahlman added, “I would say I think teachers don’t feel as rushed.”

To break up the longer days for students, Dahlman said teachers make efforts to have “brain breaks.” Schmidt said she does this with games.

“The longer blocks allow me to fit in math games and reading games. Fun things that are still content-related but are breaks,” she said, in addition to recess, lunch and snack times.

“Kids learn to adapt,” Dahlman said. “Kids are resilient.”

Schmidt said the benefits outweighed any challenges of moving to a four-day week.

“I think one of the biggest benefits was, from a teacher’s perspective, feeling like I have more energy to give in those four days — burnout is not as common,” she said.

She said the opportunity to spend more time with family, and cultivate interests outside of work, “Allows us to be better at our job.”

The same goes for students.

“Students who had more energy are more apt to be here and are more rested up to give in those four days,” she said.

Better rested students and staff is something Fair-Mont-Egan also pointed out in how it could improve staff turnover and student achievement.

Since the switch at Olney-Bissell, Dahlman said it’s been difficult to pin down if absences and student achievement are directly tied to the four-day week or are pandemic related.

“Attendance is really a challenge since the pandemic. We’re trying to get back on track now, but it’s still a little bit of a struggle, but that’s due to several reasons,” he said. “We still deal with some appointments during the four-day week.”

Dahlman said he has noticed, however, reductions in student absences related to family trips such as hunting, camping or skiing.

“We’ve seen a reduction in those for sure,” Dahlman said.

ONE OF the questions typically raised by school districts looking to move to a four-day week is how many families will need to find and pay for a daycare or other supervision. It was a concern listed in the comments of Fair-Mont-Egan’s survey considering the severe shortage of options in the valley.

As a solution, the school plans to hold its before- and after-school program Bruin’s Den on Fridays. Current attendance varies from 10 to 20 children.

Carlenzoli doesn’t anticipate a huge increase on Fridays, but if there is, she said the plan is to reach out to its paraeducators for additional staffing. Currently, the cost to attend during the morning and early afternoon hours is $3 and $5 from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m.

For some students, school is the only place where they get meals, which is why Fair-Mont-Egan reached out to the Bigfork Food Pantry to extend the Backpack Program from two to three days worth of food.

“It’s worked in other rural schools,” she said. “We’re not doing this just to do it without making sure it’s working.”

Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.