Four-day school a no-go for 26-27

With more questions than answers, the Clarke Community School Board agreed they are not ready to move forward with making the change to a four-day school week for next year but are not dismissing the possibility for the following year, as retention and recruitment of teachers and the overall well-being of students, teachers and staff remain at the forefront.

After several work sessions between the school board and administrators, work sessions between administrators, two community surveys and a community forum, a discussion at Monday night’s board meeting ended with the consensus to hold on the decision for now and allow administrators to work on a five-day calendar for the 2026-27 school year with a rough draft to be presented to the board at the March 2 meeting; a public hearing will be held prior to any vote on the 2026-27 calendar.

Board opinions

The board discussed the most recent survey sent out to community members in late January as a follow-up to one sent out in December. The December survey had come back with 83% of responses showing interest in a four-day school week; however, it was noted the survey could be taken more than once. A decision at a previous work session had been made to only allow survey takers to complete the survey once this go around. However, an inadvertent error on the part of survey company Satchel Pulse resulted in some recipients of the survey having the ability to take the survey more than once. After reaching out to Satchel Pulse, they were able to correct the error and go through the results to get the most accurate data.

“They have sorted through our data multiple times,” Clarke Communications Director Becca Kedley said. “They have gone based off of the IP addresses - they can’t see the specific individuals… and removed any duplicates.”

Having read through the comments, the board said there weren’t a lot of surprises but it was good information to have.

“I personally feel like, for the amount of time we’ve been talking about this, the survey results were fairly positive regarding the aspect of a potential four-day [school week],” Clarke School Board President Wendy Short said.

She said she felt like the discussion into a four-day school week was something worth continuing, but needed direction from Clarke Superintendent Kurt DeVore and the administration team as to their thoughts on the data received and potential next steps.

“At the end of the day, I know what direction we need to go, but I’m going to have zero impact in the buildings trying to make all of this work,” Short said, asking the board if they wanted to continue with discussions.

Saying she was not for or against it, board member Robin Galvez said she felt the decision was being rushed.

“If we move forward with this… I do not think we should do it for next year. It’s too pushed, it’s too rushed,” Galvez said.

Galvez called for more transparency with the community, including having answers to questions by having solid plans in place instead of working off of theories. Noting comments from staff about the culture and climate at Clarke as it is now with a five-day week, she pointed to the largely new admin team who are just getting to work on creating positivity in the schools.

“Let’s get them a year… to say this is how we make it better here. I want Clarke to be a district where people are proud of it,” Galvez said. “I’d like to see [admin] have more of a chance to change our culture and make it better.”

Citing concerns about lack of time in the day for teachers and prep time in a five-day school week, board member Dr. Ben Hicks questioned how the board would be able to justify taking that fifth day without putting in thoughtful time planning.

“It doesn’t [just] come down to time, it comes to effective teaching. Part of that is not always training new teachers,” Hicks said.

Board member Jon Sullivan agreed with both Galvez and Hicks.

“As board members, our positions exist as a result of the public’s trust. And the public I think is, frankly and clearly, telling us this is rushed, we need to take our time,” Sullivan said. He said if the board decided to pursue a four-day school week for 2027-28, the decision needed to be made now to begin the planning process and have time for more communication with the public.

Along the communication lines, board member Edith Flores said there also needed to be more communication with staff by including them in the discussion. Board member Brad Lampe agreed with Flores, saying discussions with staff needed to make sure staff felt listened to and their opinions and suggestions taken seriously, tasks he didn’t feel could be accomplished by fall.

Speaking to both four- and five-day calendars, Lampe said he didn’t believe in either one, saying there could be a hybrid that would work better.

“I think our admin needs a chance to get behind a calendar that they believe in and are passionate about,” Lampe said.

He noted that while the process is too quick, several other schools in the area - EBF, Centerville and Corydon - are looking into four-day school weeks. As more schools move to shorter school weeks, it takes some of the edge away in the recruitment and retention piece.

Speaking on the community forum held Jan. 21, board member Ann Lovell said it wasn’t great.

“People came in expecting answers, and all they went away with were questions and concerns,” she said.

Lovell also agreed to feeling the decision for a four-day school week was being rushed for next year and open to future discussions, but questioned how to address concerns of retention and recruitment and culture in the five-day week.

Admin opinions

DeVore took some time to talk about meetings had between administration with the ongoing four-day school week discussion.

“This is multi-faceted; there are lots of pieces to go into this decision,” DeVore said. “This is not a simple decision.”

He said a four-day school week can’t prove to increase retention and recruitment, but it has been found to help with it in some districts. Retaining staff is an imperative issue, as having to retrain staff is “hurtful and time consuming” for the admin team and success of the buildings.

“If Clarke were to go to a four-day school week and still struggle to attract and retain teachers, we stay in the same boat we are now,” he said.

“Recruitment and retention doesn’t necessarily lead to improved academic success… this is an avenue,” DeVore said.

With the sentiment of needing more time for Professional Learning Community and prep time, DeVore said one way to accomplish the prep time would be to hire general education associates to help offset some duties of the teachers so they can prep.

DeVore said the forum brought to light some factors outside of the school week that hadn’t been considered, such as addressing food insecurity in grades six through 12 and parents questioning why instruction and the school year ends as soon as 1,080 hours are met.

Having stated several times prior that if the change was made the admin would champion and devote all of their time to making next year success, DeVore said it could not be done successfully for next year, needing more time to work through the logistics to focus not only on the retention and recruitment aspect but also on the academic success of the students.

Final thoughts

Lampe suggested leaving the calendar as is for next year. Flores agreed with giving the admin more time, but didn’t want to leave the decision for two more years.

“If anything came out of all these comments, it’s that what we’re doing now isn’t really working,” Short said. “We need to do something different.”

With a year of grace to look at possible calendar changes - be in a hybrid or five days - the admin can have more time to look at all of the pieces moving forward.

“I’d like it to come from you guys… what you think is best and bring it to us,” Hicks said.

There was no formal action taken on the discussion.

Survey results

The four-day school week survey was sent to four different groups: parents/guardians, students in grades 6-11, classified staff and teachers. There were 518 responses from parents/guardians, 414 from students, 76 from classified staff and 112 from teachers.

Overall, responses in support of a move to a four-day school week (somewhat supportive and strong support) had students at nearly 75%, parents/guardians about 65%, classified staff about 53% and teachers about 55%.

More information about the school board’s visions of a four-day school week including survey results can be found online at clarkecsd.org in the menu under “Potential 4-Day School Week Information.”