A four-day school week will be explored this year in Livingstone Range School Division.
Trustees voted to have administration develop a plan for engagement with parents and other stakeholders not later than April.
That decision followed a presentation at the Dec. 18 school board meeting at the G.R. Davis Administration Building in Fort Macleod.
Superintendent Darryl Seguin reminded trustees that in 2021 the school board explore the implementation of a four-day week.
“It was kind of put on pause for a while and now we’re coming back to revisit this conversation,” Seguin said.
Seguin said while schools have operated on a five-day week for decades, there is a growing trend — particularly in the United States — to move to four days.
The reasons for that trend including increasing student attendance and engagement, improving academic results and boosting graduation rates.
Educators also see the four-day week as a week to increase transition by students to post-secondary or the work force after graduation.
Staff recruitment and retention is seen as another benefit of the four-day week.
The four-day week also alleviates challenges with finding substitute teachers.
Finally, there are budget efficiencies for school divisions facing financial challenges.
“We need to take into consideration all of these factors as we move forward as a school division,” Seguin said.
Seguin noted that Alberta Education requires students in Grade 1-9 to have 950 hours of instruction per year. That requirement increases to 1,000 for Grade 10-12.
There is no requirement in Alberta for the number of days in a school year, except it can’t exceed 200.
Seguin told trustees four-day weeks are used in some schools in Alberta.
Palliser Regional School Division has schools in Champion, Brant and Milo that operate on four-day weeks, and Prairie Land School Division uses that system in Veteran school.
Horizon School Division also has a four-day week for its schools in Hays and Lomond.
Seguin presented to trustees a proposal that has all students in Grade 1-12 attending school for 158 days a year.
Under that scenario, Grade 1-9 students would receive 961 hours of instruction, and Grade 10-12 students would get 1,014.
In the second scenario, Grade 1-9 students would attend 152 days and Grade 10-12 would attend 158 days.
Grade 1-9 would get 962.7 hours of instruction and Grade 10-12 would get 1,014 hours.
In both scenarios, that work out to 365 minutes a day for Grade 1-9 and 385 minutes a day for Grade 10-12.
Seguin also presented two scenarios in which all students attend 156 days. Grade 1-9 would get 950 hours of instruction and Grade 10-12 would get 1,001 hours.
In a fourth scenario, Grade 1-9 would attend 150 days (380 minutes per day) and high school 156 days (385 minutes per day).
Grade 1-9 would get 950 hours of instruction and high school 1,001 hours.
The scenarios extend the days by as little as three minutes to as much as 25 minutes, depending on the school.
“There’s other options,” Seguin said. “There’s no true four-day week out there.”
Seguin provided examples of both elementary and high school time tables.
In most cases school is in Monday to Thursday, but when there is a long weekend, it shifts to Tuesday to Friday.
There is discussion with high schools of “common” learning weeks when students across the division could attend a band camp, for example.
Teachers would still work most Fridays but with the flexibility to work remotely.
Seguin said the impact of a four-day week on support staff and bus drivers has to be explored.
“Stakeholders are going to want to know what are the next steps,” trustee Brad Toone said following Seguin’s presentation.
Toone introduced a motion to develop a plan at least by April.
“We want to make sure we’re continuing this conversation and not putting it on a shelf,” Toone said.
The motion passed.
