St. Landry Parish Schools May Change to a Four Day School Week

Posted: Jan 6, 2012 6:15 PM by Jenise Fernandez
Source: KATC
Updated: Jan 6, 2012 6:25 PM

Alisha Ray is a parent of two school aged children and a teacher's aid at Park Vista Elementary. She worries switching to a four day school week will be difficult for working parents.

"People are financially strapped and they don't have the means to put their kids in daycare so that's going to leave children alone at home," said Ray.

Ray says with Elementary students short attention spans, it'll be hard for them to stay focused. Teachers will have to cram five days of work into four.

"School curriculum is already very tough for all ages so to push more in a day to have a shorter week is going to be a lot harder for them," said Ray.

But, the St. Landry Coalition of Educators, believes shortening the week will save money for a financially strapped school board.

"It'll save in the areas of maintenance, in energy consumption, we'll save in the areas of food management," said Ricky Julian, spokesperson for St. Landry Coalition of Educators.

This is how the four day school week would work:
5 to 10 minutes of teaching time will be added to each subject, which means if school usually ends at 3 pm,.it'll instead end at 3:45pm or 4pm. The week would be Tuesday through Friday with Mondays off. Julien says the best way to make sure kids aren't left alone on their day off is to create partnerships with non-profit organizations like the Boys and Girls Club. He says having Mondays "off" will also give struggling students a chance to catch up.

"On that Monday certain classrooms can be open, the whole school doesn't have to open just certain classrooms can be open for remediation," said Julien.
"The vote needs to be in the best interest of the children everybody needs to think about not what's going on in their lives, but for the children's lives," said Ray.

An open forum will be held on January 10 at the Opelousas Civic Center at 6pm. Teachers, students, and parents are welcome to come and share their concerns. The school board will discuss this issue at their next board meeting on January 12.