VIRGINIA- In a stark about-face from November, the ISD 2142 School Board appeared ready to adopt a four-day school week for next year at a working session on Tuesday, and scheduled a vote on the proposal for its March 25 business meeting.
The district notified parents of the possibility by phone or text messages sent Tuesday night after the board meeting. School officials will take public input on the plan at meetings set for next Monday night, March 17. Meetings at North Woods, Tower-Soudan, and Northeast Range will all be from 6-7 p.m. in the school libraries.
The four-day week was floated last fall, with the possibility that the switch could save the district at least $500,000 as it struggles to cope with a projected $1.5 million shortfall. But after the results of a survey found that 111 parents might choose to leave the district if the change was implemented, Superintendent Reggie Engebritson recommended that the board delay the move for a year because the loss of students would cost more in lost state funding than the district would save.
But a majority of board members have apparently had a change of heart, as comments at Tuesday’s meeting leaned in favor of the proposal.
“I think we need to at this point, budget wise,” board member Rob Marinaro said. “I think it’s going to be great for the kids to get a little extra day off to recuperate, and that staff can be a little fresher. I think it’s going to work. I’ve heard a lot of positives in the Tower area. (Tower-Soudan Principal John Jirik) has got a pulse on it there and he’s hearing good things. I don’t think we wait. We want to be leaders, not followers. I think we can enhance our enrollment.”
While the board could not vote at a working session, the general consensus was to move the proposal to a vote on March 25. Board member Chris Koivisto indicated that he was “not fully supportive at the moment,” while board chair Lynn Hilde said he was “mostly there.”
Noting that the schedule would require class periods to be lengthened to 60 minutes, Koivisto said, “A longer class period is not going to help academics. The majority of studies and anything I’ve read says more frequent and shorter class periods benefit the students academically.”
School-age care
A factor that appeared to influence opinions was the presentation of a plan for school-age care for Kindergarten through sixth grades at the schools on Fridays, designed to alleviate concerns expressed by many parents about finding placements for their children when school is not in session.
Board member Mallory Manick talked about the plan, which was formulated by a board committee in consultation with district staff.
The program would offer half-day or full-day options that parents would pre-register and pay for online a week in advance to facilitate planning and food service, Manick said. Drop-ins would not be allowed. Adult staff would come from either new hires or current district part-time staff wanting to pick up additional hours. Staffing could be supplemented by 17- or 18-year-old high school students to provide appropriate staff-to-child ratios, Manick said. Each school would have a site supervisor similar to the district’s community education early childhood programs who would be trained to address issues such as child medications or emergencies. Sites would be able to offer lunch and a snack, and possibly breakfast.
Manick also talked about developing a schedule of enrichment activities and academic supports similar to programming in the Carlton district’s Friday school-age program.
“We could have a catalog of things you can sign up for and do on Fridays when you’re not in school,” she said.
Marinaro noted that the district would work with individual communities to explore partnerships with local organizations for alternatives if the number of participants at a given school doesn’t support having a program. And students from one school could be enrolled in school-age care at another district school. Given the number of concerns about care expressed in the fall survey, school officials are thinking that the program will help to retain a large number of students who might otherwise have left the district.
No help for staff cuts
Whatever funds the district saves if it switches to a four-day week would largely go to offset the large deficit in the unassigned fund balance, the source of the district’s shortfall for next year.
The funds won’t restore teaching positions that have been cut because of the deficit.
“That would be used to keep our fund balance from going into a larger deficit,” Finance Director Kim Johson said. “It’s not going to eliminate or reduce the number of staff reductions that are going to be necessary. We’ll have to watch that year over year as we keep an eye on the fund balance because we’re going to have to grow it to make sure that we don’t go (into statutory operating debt).”
North Woods-area board members and current parents Manick and Jarrett Bundy took the opportunity to voice strong objections to the cuts at North Woods, which represent about half of the cuts across the entire district.
“I’m concerned about North Woods Elementary,” Manick said. “I see this (enrollment) number of North Woods dropping, and it’s not because of COVID. It is because parents are unhappy with the academics and extracurriculars offered at North Woods, and they’re going to MIB and Rock Ridge. I know four kids in the fifth grade alone that left this year. They did not move out of the district, they’re all still living in Cook. They went to MIB and Rock Ridge.”
The cuts and combinations of classes is causing parents to look elsewhere again this year, Manick said.
“I know of at least 25 kids that are leaving, I could name 25 just off the top of my head who are promising they’re gone,” Manick said. “And my kids might be with them because look at these classes. I invite anyone to go into Mrs. Panichi’s sixth-grade class with 33 kids in there.”
Manick ticked off a list of anticipated class sizes for next year in the elementary school – 28, 29, 31, 26, 32, and 30.
“Those are huge class sizes,” she said. “You’re really going to affect these kids’ education and the teachers by putting 30-plus kids in a classroom. It’s too many kids – they’re crammed in there. It’s going to set them up for all these years to be struggling. I can see with my own son that he’s going to struggle next year.”
Managing the disruptions caused by behavioral issues was also a concern expressed with instruction in larger classrooms, and Bundy amplified that concern to the school in general.
“I’m hearing the same thing from teachers and parents. (Administrators) aren’t doing their job, period,” Bundy said. “From what I’m hearing at school, what students are getting away with, it’s not good for what we’re leaving at that school. When my kids come home and tell me they smell marijuana four out of five days in school, something’s got to be done. Nothing’s getting done because it just keeps happening.
“If you’re hearing specific things about administration, I need to know,” Engebritson responded. “I hear the frustration and the way that kids can vape without people really knowing it, and I understand. I’ve heard about the smell, and we’re trying to catch those kids and we’re watching the cameras, and we’ve had law enforcement, so it’s not easy. But if there are concerns you feel that administration’s not doing it, then I need to know.”
Marinaro suggested that board members take their concerns to Engebritson directly for her to have an opportunity to address them before they’re brought to the board.
“I’m happy to hear what you said, but she didn’t have a chance to fix it and she’s kind of just hearing about it,” Marinaro said. “I want to be fair with her, too.”