Rural school district appeals to state to keep four-day schedule

CLARA CITY, Minn. – Faced with a recession and dwindling finances, schools here faced a daunting choice in 2008: Cut programs and lay off teachers or take the unprecedented step of going to a four-day week.

Now the financial crisis is over and the state Education Department is ordering them and other rural districts back to a traditional, five-day week by next fall.

But the MACCRAY schools, as the Maynard-Clara City-Raymond school district in west-central Minnesota is known, don't want to anymore.

The four-day schedule that runs from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. has proved popular with students, parents, teachers and even local businesses, who hire teens to work on their off day. School district officials say they have saved thousands of dollars on busing, heating and other administrative costs.

"It just works really well for us," said MACCRAY Schools Superintendent Brian Koslofsky "Even though we have a healthy budget now, [the money saved] we can put into the classroom."

And they're willing to take their fight to the State Capitol.

A school board committee is exploring two ways to retain the unique calendar, including drafting a bill to allow for local control on the matter. State Sen. Lyle Koenen, DFL-Clara City, and Rep.-elect Tim Miller, a Republican who represents the area, said they plan to support legislation should the district choose that route.

State education officials say there has been a lack of adequate academic progress in the district, necessitating a return to a more traditional school week.

Josh Collins, a spokesman for the department, said the four-day week was born of financial necessity. Now, with improved school fund balances, he said, "it does beg the question, should the financial need continue to outweigh what appears to be a negative impact on student achievement?"

Collins said the state's aim is to provide Minnesota students a uniform and equitable education. He added that districts wanting waivers from the traditional calendar are scrutinized on both their fiscal health and academic achievement.

In the MACCRAY district, the high school test scores are a little below average but the elementary schools are at or slightly above the statewide average. State officials say they are concerned that the district has not made strong enough gains among low-income students.

The four-day schedule may also be at odds with what Gov. Mark Dayton has envisioned for the state's schools. The DFL governor has made education a priority and said last spring that he wants the Legislature to consider raising the number of school days required by state law.

Locals had reservations about the shorter school week and longer days, but they adapted and now embrace the four-day schedule.

"I love it," said Laura Hauser, a senior at MACCRAY High who was in sixth grade when the schedule was first adopted. "I feel like I adjusted pretty quickly," she recalled of the transition. "A lot of people were really worried about it."

Mondays are also productive, Hauser said. She works a part-time retail job in nearby Willmar, plays volleyball and softball and takes a class at the community college on Mondays to earn early college credit. The extra day off allows many teens to work part-time jobs.

Koslofsky and others point to other benefits. Teachers can be trained on Mondays when school isn't scheduled. Parents and students can use the off day for weekday appointments without disrupting school. Local dentists and orthodontists call the surge of students and teachers to their offices "MACCRAY Mondays."

Ben Henker, a sophomore, said the longer school day sometimes wears on students. "It's more time being here, and it's kind of tiresome," he said.

Though unusual, flexible scheduling has existed in many states for decades, and is popular primarily in rural districts trying to pinch pennies. It gained popularity during the 1970s energy crisis in the U.S., according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL).

Twenty-one states have laws allowing four-day school weeks, according to NCSL data. Roughly 120 school districts have structured their academic years this way, though districts in a half-dozen states have not opted to switch to the shorter schedule.

The NCSL, a research tool for state legislative bodies, said the lack of comprehensive studies makes it difficult to say whether the shorter school weeks hurt or help student achievement.

Mark Anderson, an economics professor at Montana State University, studied the effect of the four-day schedule on elementary school students in Colorado, analyzing about a decade's worth of standardized testing data in math and reading for fourth- and fifth-graders. He found scores improved during that time.

"It would appear that academic performance … was not compromised," Anderson said. "If anything, it got better."

When this first started, "everybody wanted this to work," Stalnaker said. "And we've made it work. It might not work for the district next door, and it might not work for a metro district, but it works for us."

Ricardo Lopez • 651-925-5044