KSD exploring 4-day week

KELLOGG –– The Kellogg School District is exploring potentially changing to a four-day school week. 

Recently, students in the KSD were sent home with surveys that their families could fill out and return to the school – these surveys asked the families what they believed would be the pros and cons of such a change from the traditional five-day school week. 

The district is still collecting and compiling the survey results, but KSD superintendent Lance Pearson explained the district’s current position and what has prompted them to look into potentially changing their format. 

“At the behest of the administrative team, we started an exploration into the four-day week back in January when we learned that at that time both Coeur d’Alene and Lakeland were exploring the possibility,” Pearson said. “We feel that competing with other districts for teachers in North Idaho would be problematic if the bigger districts were all operating on a four-day week.” 

Along with a parent/staff committee, the school board is undergoing several workshops to determine the feasibility of such a schedule.

More than 95 school districts across the state have made the change to a four-day week, but there are some in the northern portion of the state that are resistant – including the Coeur d’Alene School District, which had been discussing the possibility of changing but appear to be moving away from it. 

“Coeur d’Alene not going to a four-day week would factor in our decision-making process,” Pearson said. 

He further explained that competition for quality educators becomes even more challenging when neighboring districts offer more flexible schedules. 

“We began by looking at the research and there is no conclusive evidence that a five-day week or a four-day week is the best in regards to student achievement. Both have their positives and negatives when it comes to student achievement,” He said. “The most significant factor, when looking at how kids perform in the classroom, is the quality of the teacher. We want to recruit and retain the highest quality teachers we can possibly find and our teachers are telling us the four-day week would make a difference in their attitude towards coming to KSD and staying with KSD.” 

Pearson did say that the first batch of surveys they reviewed have been favorable to the change. 

“We first sent out electronic surveys via email and set up computer banks at conferences at the schools,” Pearson said. “We had around 200 responses via electronic surveys, but I wanted a final push to make sure we are hearing from all our constituents, thus, the paper surveys. Right now, the majority of surveys are very positive towards a four-day week.” 

The district’s board of trustees is approaching the situation very tentatively and wants the community to understand that, currently, they are gathering as much information to make an informed decision. 

“The board is aware of the trend of four-day school weeks throughout the state and possible positives and negatives of those,” chairwoman Alexa Griffin said. “We are interested to learn as much as possible about its effects on students, staff, testing scores, mental health, among many other things. We are trying to get as much patron feedback as possible because we want to make any possible decision based on what works for our community and to do that we want to hear from those it affects. This has a lot of factors to consider locally and even at the state level with legislation. We're looking forward to a workshop to discuss the information before any decisions are made.”

The Kellogg School District Board of Trustees will be holding a workshop on Thursday, April 25 at the district office in Kellogg following their 6 p.m. special meeting.