MELCHER-DALLAS, Iowa — Melcher-Dallas is the latest school district in Iowa to move to a four-day school week. Students will arrive 15 minutes earlier and leave 15 minutes later than normal each day in the adjustment.
"We are a small school district, and so we're trying to look for a way to set ourselves apart so that we're not competing with the fewer number of teachers in the state of Iowa," Superintendent Scott Bridges said. "We just thought that the four-day week would be a significant benefit that people would be interested in."
Other than the extra 30 minutes each day, the district plans to make up for the off day with not just more teachers, but more high-quality teachers.
"With the shrinking number of teachers that are out there, we might get one or two applications," said Bridges, who serves as the superintendent at both Melcher-Dallas and Twin Cedars. "(And so then) you're just hoping to fill the position, not fill it with the best possible candidate. So we're seeing that we have more candidates to choose from, and so it's making an impact in that way, too."
Those higher-quality teachers are hoping to make use of more quality time.
"Each of our days now is worth about almost eight percent more compared to what it was last year," Bridges said. "So if we weren't diligent about making sure that we're using that time wisely to engage students, we would lose out on that percentage of our school year."
The biggest drawback of the change was childcare and the lack thereof, but after presentations at town meetings, around 80% of the community was in favor of the four-day week.
"One of the things that we really tried to explain was, due to all of our early outs or holidays or days that we don't have school for whatever reason, it was almost 50 percent of the school year we were already in a four-day week for whatever reason. So it wasn't that much of a stretch to go the rest of the way."
Bridges added that the district is working with local child care providers to make the service more accessible throughout the community.
The district chose to eliminate the Monday school day over Friday to keep students engaged with all of the activities that take place Friday nights.