My last article began to examine the possibility of schools attending four days a week instead of five. In the article I began giving some pros of how schools could save money by extending the four days and dropping off a fifth.
In the article I discussed how some schools had considered leaving off Fridays at the end and some had decided to begin their week with Tuesday.
There were several ways that dropping off a day would save on money, fuel, and electric costs.
However there are also some negative factors that school supervisors and planners must consider before moving to four day weeks.
What about the cafeteria workers and bus drivers? There may be more but these are the only two persons that I can think of that would be directly affected salary wise. Bus drivers are not going to be getting in extra hours by the extended day. They will actually be losing hours from taking away the fifth day. Will their salary be affected? Cafeteria workers are the same. They come in to cook breakfast and leave after lunch. The lunch hour would not be extended. Therefore these workers would be working fewer hours. Will they get less pay? These people may not be able to afford to lose the extra day of work.
Will parents complain about childcare? For some parents the childcare situation would likely be easier. If school is extended to last until 4:30 or so, it may be more convenient for parents who could not be there to get their children at 3:00. These parents may be able to eliminate after school care and only find care for the off day. However others are going to be stuck with no one to keep their child on the extra day off.
In the first article I discussed how states could save on free and reduced lunch. Would cutting a day of school also cut out two meals a week for some children? There are children who only get good meals from school.
Do the pros outweigh the cons?