Four day decision needed by February

As discussions about the possibility of a four-day school week continue between the Clarke Community School Board and administrators, the latter say they need a decision by the Feb. 9 regular board meeting.

“We need as much time as possible to be able to do it as well as we can,” Clarke Middle School Principal Dr. Sarah Kelly said at the Jan. 14 work session.

Board motivation

At the Wednesday work session, school board members restated their motivations for looking into the calendar change.

“Part of the reason we’re looking at it seriously is because of the retention and recruiting piece,” Clarke School Board member Brad Lampe said.

At a December work session, Clarke board members and administrators heard from representatives of Cardinal and Saydel school districts, all of whom spoke to the benefits of four versus five days. At those schools, both saw increases in not just the retention and increased applicant pools, but also an increase in mental health for their staff, faculty and students.

Retaining teachers and receiving a large applicant pool have been struggles for Clarke for several years. A hope is that by switching to a shorter school week, it will attract more applicants.

“We’ve struggled with retention and recruitment and we’ve been in a rut,” Clarke School Board member Dr. Ben Hicks said. “It’s really hard to really differentiate ourselves from other schools.”

“We’re trying to figure out ways to improve our recruitment,” Clarke School Board member Wendy Short said. “Constant turnover and new faces is not helping.”

Before making a decision one way or the other, the school board said they need full commitment and support from the admin, while noting that if they wait too long they may fall behind as more and more schools move to four days, thereby removing that bargaining chip. For the 2025-26 school year, the number of Iowa schools operating on a four day week increased by 50% from the prior year.

“We can’t rush this… we have to make sure that we’re taking a step back and looking at everything,” Clarke School Board member Robin Galvez said.

Unknowns

A great deal of discussion centered around the unknowns that could come from going to four days, from how it would affect students to its overall success to teacher days off. While examples of a four day week can be seen at other schools, there are none in Iowa that are the same size or have the same targeted groups (per state assessments) as Clarke.

“I’m not sold until you can tell me what it looks like for this kid in this classroom,” Clarke Director of Special Education and Student Services Jen Adams-Potter said, pointing to EL learners and students with disabilities.

With not being able to look at similar examples of Iowa schools to Clarke on the four day schedule, Adams-Potter said she wasn’t finding solutions to make such a change successful.

“The kids who are impacted… are our most vulnerable,” she said.

Lampe agreed there aren’t schools in Iowa to look at, but that there are examples to be found in other states of similar sizes. He suggested that a four day week be put on a probationary period, with a plan in place if student achievement were to decline.

Going back to recruitment and retention, it was asked if applicants, or teachers, fully understand what a four day week would mean for them. While students would have that fifth day off from instruction, there would likely be professional development or work days for teachers. Amidst concerns of not having enough planning and prep time, the benefit of a four day week for teachers was questioned.

“Is that day going to be a day off, or are we going to expect staff to be here?” Adams-Potter asked. “I’m not sure it’s going to be a big retention and recruitment tool if we’re not giving teachers any of that time back.”

Currently, Clarke teachers have one day a month for PD that students have off. Clarke Director of Teaching and Learning Dr. Stephanie Brown said the more PD time the better, as the teachers then take that back to their classrooms.

“Student achievement has to be a high concern for us,” Brown said. “However, if our core instruction was heightened, then we would have higher achievement.”

She suggested one way to combat that third day off would be to have two PD days a month, one work day and one mental health day for teachers. Some concerns, such as no longer having built-in snow days was raised, but possible solutions could be found in using the off day as a make-up day.

Other concerns, however, were ones that couldn’t be answered until the process begins.

“Some things you don’t know that until you make that decision and start going down that path and figure out what those are,” Clarke High School Principal Ruby Clyde said. “You don’t want to rush it, but yet you don’t want to continue to wait.”

“We all feel like it’s doable,” Galvez said, “[but] do we feel like it’s doable in the next year?”

“If the decision is made… from now until August, there is one focus and that is ensuring we are as successful as possible. And we can do that,” Clarke Superintendent Kurt DeVore said. “I have a very competent team. And we can do this. And we will - we’ll be successful.”

Continuing forward

No decision regarding the calendar was made at the work session.

With more input needed from stakeholders, a community forum was held last night to inform the community about four day conversations and allow time to ask questions; a recap of the forum will appear in next week’s paper.