School District to go to 4-day week in fall

Cutter-Morning Star gets board OK

HOT SPRINGS — The Cutter-Morning Star School District will switch to a four- day school week this fall after the School Board approved the move during Wednesday night’s monthly board meeting.

Classes will be held on Tuesday through Friday, while students will be out of school on Monday. Cutter-Morning Star is the first, and currently only, of the seven public school districts in Garland County to adopt the change.

The school board began discussions on the consideration of four-day week in February, hosting a series of town-hall-style meetings, after recent changes by the Arkansas Legislature had allowed for greater flexibility in public school calendars.

“We vetted this for about three months,” said CutterMorning Star Superintendent Nancy Anderson on Friday. “We sent out surveys, and we really wanted parent input. We’re here for the kids — we want to do whatever we can to help the kids. We do not want to make it hard on the parents. We’re partners with them, and we believe that this is a good model, because it’ll help keep them in school.”

Anderson said the vast majority of people have been in favor of the switch, with 96% of staff in support, and around 85% of parents in support of the benefits it will provide. The main goal of the district, she said, is to increase overall attendance at school.

She noted close to 30 schools in the state have now gone to a four-day week, and that while it may seem counterintuitive, research indicates students who have a day off to catch up on homework or attend a scheduled doctor’s appointment are more likely to make the other four days.

For the teachers, she said, this will be a huge benefit for them and allow them to be much better prepared for their classes.

“On Monday — and I promise you, this is what the teachers will be doing, and they don’t have to — they’re going to be grading papers, they’re going to be doing lesson prep, they’re going to be all of those things that we’ve been asking them to do at night, every night, when they go home or on the weekends. So now they have that whole entire day. And what does that mean for our kids? When that teacher comes to class on Tuesday, that teacher’s going to be more prepared,” she said.

While the schedule may look different, students will still receive the same amount of instruction, and instructional time, as they would in the traditional, five- day week.

The student will not miss anything, she noted, but the day will simply be a little longer.