Clayton Ridge School Board approves four-day school week for next year
The Clayton Ridge School District Board of Directors approved a four-day weekly schedule for the 2025-26 school year at their April 10 meeting.
The board’s approval was not unanimous, with T.J. Pierce and President Jessica Bittner voting against the change.
Bittner told the audience, “I think it’s a ‘no’ for now, not a ‘no’ for always. It’s something that I think we could put off for another year.”
“I’m against this,” said Pierce. “I will also say that, regardless of how we vote, we need to move forward and make the best of how we all vote.”
District Superintendent Shane Wahls spoke in favor of the change before the board voted.
“Back in September, if I were at that podium, I would’ve joined those that were a ‘no’ for the four-day school week,” he said. “Now, I have a much different viewpoint because I’ve been researching this since then. That doesn’t mean that I have all of the answers or all of the solutions, but what I have come to realize is that there are some great opportunities for our district.”
Eight community members spoke during the meeting, with those opposed to a four-day school week touching on the possibility of decreased student achievement and growth, burnout from longer school days and transportation safety, among other issues.
“We’re not here to say no, but we are here to ask you to pause,” said Samantha Corsbie. She requested that the board to keep students first when making their decision.
One speaker claimed that Clayton Ridge students already get on buses as early as 6:40 a.m. and return home as late as 4:45 p.m. An earlier start time raised concerns about student safety as they waited for the buses in the morning, especially during inclement weather in the winter months.
Wahls responded that the school district has conducted several meetings “looking at routes, configurations of routes and what time they pick the kids up.”
He added that the school day will only be lengthened by 30 minutes rather than 45 minutes, and the district will not add all of that time on to the beginning of the day.
“I think this change from adding 45 minutes to the day to adding 30 minutes and only moving up 15 minutes in the morning changes that story for parents. They’re not going to get on [the buses] 45 minutes early; they’re only going to get on 15 minutes sooner,” said Wahls.
He acknowledged that there are still possible logistical issues that may come up.
At the informational meetings the district conducted this past month, Wahls pointed out that the district spent 10 weeks operating on a four-day schedule due to holidays and other scheduled days off during the 2024-25 school year.
“For one-third of the school year this year, all of us in this room that have any connection to kids in the Clayton Ridge district have experienced it,” said Wahls. “I would reiterate the fact that we could have four days slightly longer with no more early dismissals and the consistency that it brings.”
Wahls said the school district conducted three rounds of surveys, which included input from faculty, parents and students. All three of the survey groups showed a majority favored changing the school schedule. Approval numbers given by the superintendent showed 89 percent favorability among staff, 78 percent favorability among students and 65 percent favorability among parents in the school district.
Several people spoke about the balancing act students have to maintain in order to fulfill their obligations at home, school, work and in other activities.
“I don’t think it’s a whim that they’re saying, ‘I want a day off in the week.’ It’s because they’re stressed out, they have work to do and they have many things going on,” said Wahls.
“This is more than just a change to our calendar. It’s a shift in how we think about education,” said Tierney Hoefer, a PK-5 instructional coach for Clayton Ridge.
She added that the district could use the opportunity to reprioritize student learning and give teachers more time to evaluate how the district serves their students as a whole.
“In addition, this model gives high school valuable opportunities outside the classroom, such as job shadowing and college credit classes,” she said.
Community members not in favor of the change referenced research that questioned the positive and negative effects the change might have on students, including academic, attendance and physical and mental well-being.
Student attendance, schedules, faculty retention and recruitment were a few of the reasons Wahls pursued the idea of moving to a four-day school week.
Wahls also claimed that the school has created a data tracker to monitor student performance and other factors that may be affected by the schedule change and will retain afternoon schedules for athletic practices. He said that additional homework was “not the intent” of reducing the weekly school schedule.
