Independence becomes largest school district in Missouri to adopt a four-day week

The Independence school board on Tuesday agreed to transition to a four-day school week next fall — making it the largest district in Missouri to do so.

The board voted 6-1 to adopt a shorter school week, despite parent concerns about transparency and a push by one board member to continue engaging the public on the issue before making a decision. The district is making the change to offer a new incentive to employees, aiming to better attract and retain staff amid ongoing labor shortages.

“I understand that this is a difficult choice,” Superintendent Dale Herl said. “But at the end of the day, what we really have to remain focused on is what the primary focus of a school district is. Most would agree it is to provide the best educational opportunities for students. The way to do that is to have the best employees.”

It’s a move that has brought mixed reactions from parents, staff and community members. Some are excited to have an extra day off and feel it may benefit staff and student mental health, while also attracting more, quality teachers to stay in the district. But others worry about what the shorter week will mean for student achievement, as well as families who cannot afford transportation or child care, or need additional services for their special education students on the fifth day.

Board member Anthony Mondaine was the only one to vote against the proposal, arguing that more engagement was needed because “there’s a considerable amount of people who don’t feel heard.” Mondaine made a motion to send a new survey out to staff, students and families to gauge input on the four-day week, but no other board members supported the idea.

The district surveyed those groups earlier this fall, but officials have since put out significantly more information on what the four-day week would look like.

“At the very least it would be responsible and fair to hear from the people this will directly impact in an informed and trackable way,” Mondaine said in a Facebook post before Tuesday’s meeting.

Other board members said that they’ve received more engagement on this topic than any other in several years. Herl emphasized that with hiring and budgetary planning beginning next month, it was crucial to have the vote now.

Board member Blake Roberson said that the four-day week was “well thought-out, provides great support on the fifth day for families who need services and opportunities for district staff to have better work-life balance.”

“As a board and district, I can promise you we will work tooth-and-nail, as hard as possible, on potential issues that are concerning to me,” he said. “To make sure students do not fall through the cracks. I want to be concerned about the less fortunate, about the homeless in the Independence school district, the vulnerable and impoverished.”

Why a four-day week?

Struggling to attract and retain staff along with other area districts, the school board in August agreed to explore the idea of moving to a four-day week, following a growing trend in Missouri and across the country.

As of the start of this school year, more than a quarter of Missouri school districts, primarily smaller systems in rural areas, had a four-day school week, according to state data.

Independence, with roughly 14,000 students, is the largest district in the state — and the first in the Kansas City metro — to adopt the condensed week. The current largest district is Warren County outside St. Louis, with about 3,000 students.

With the four-day schedule, the district will no longer hold classes on Mondays. School days would be extended by 40 minutes, officials have said, so that the district continues to maintain the number of instructional hours required under state law.

With many concerned about child care and a lack of instructional time on the fifth day, the district has outlined several options for students on Mondays. The district would offer academic support programs for students who are below grade level, to receive tutoring and credit recovery opportunities. Officials said transportation would be provided for those programs.

The district would also provide child care that day for a cost, as well as enrichment programs for students, such as field trips, job shadowing and internships.

Marcie Gragg, a mother of four, previously told The Star that she is concerned the four-day week might be too difficult for families who cannot afford child care, have only elementary-aged students or have students with disabilities. She worries the four-day week is being proposed only because of hiring and retention needs, and not for the “best interests of students.”

“It’s more about how does this impact adults. And then we’ll just wait and see down the road how kids fare through this,” she said.

But a few teachers said during Tuesday’s board meeting that they were supportive of the four-day school week, arguing that it would give educators more time to plan, grade and recover from years of burnout in a taxing industry.

Many also have said that the change could help with student mental health, especially as they continue to grapple with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Burnout is high. It’s high at the student level, high at the teacher level. It’s been exhausting,” Truman High School teacher Shelley Lauber told the board.

“When COVID came something I realized is ... what is valuable. And that is time,” she said. “Money is nice. Money does not bring happiness. Time and feeling like you can regain your energy, regain your lust for your job.”

She urged the district to “pioneer” the major change.

Kansas City area districts have gone to desperate measures to attract and retain staff this school year amid ongoing labor shortages. Some districts have increased pay, offered bonuses, reduced lunch options and hired virtual, out-of-state teachers to instruct classrooms of students on their computers.

Without enough drivers at the start of this school year, the Independence district announced this past summer that it would adjust bus routes so that middle and high school students must live more than 1.5 miles from their schools to be eligible to ride.

Missouri ranks at the bottom of states for average teacher starting salaries, according to a report from the National Education Association. Herl has said the district is looking at a variety of ways to improve staff retention, including providing its highest-ever raise to teacher salaries this year.

Transparency concerns

Several community members have voiced frustrations over what they see as a lack of transparency in the process, arguing that more time was needed for community input.

Unlike most other metro area districts, Independence does not livestream or record its school board meetings, making it more difficult for working families to keep up with its actions. In addition, unlike other districts, the district does not publicly provide detailed information related to items on school board agendas ahead of meetings.

And parents are upset about the school board’s public comment policy, requiring members of the public to speak only to specific agenda items, rather than bring up other concerns not on the agenda.

The public comment sessions are often the only opportunity for parents to address the entire school board about district issues, and many worry that the policy stymies open communication.

Some parents say the policy stops them from speaking about issues such as the four-day school week, as well as the recent removal of a book from elementary school libraries, because the items were not on that night’s meeting agenda.

“I feel like we have a bit of a crisis on our hands. A crisis of relationships and of community trust,” parent Arthur Smith told the board Tuesday. “ ... All of these policies, rules and practices limit participation, limit public comment and send the message to the public that our engagement is not wanted.”

District officials have argued that they have been transparent throughout the process of studying a four-day week, including information online, surveying the community and holding a public forum for the community to answer questions.