Four-Day Week Action Plan for 2011-2012

After reviewing surveys, analyzing data, and extensive dialogue, the school board unanimously decided to continue the four-day week calendar for the 2011-2012 school year.   The following were key reasons behind the decision:

1.)  With any pilot program, using one year of data to see the effectiveness of the program is very difficult.  It became apparent that this pilot was no different.  In order to truly judge the effectiveness of our four-day weeks, compiling and reviewing data for at least one more year to draw better conclusions would be advantageous.

2.)  We took our survey results very seriously.  After reviewing survey results from students, staff, parents, and community, we saw many reasons to continue for another year. We made goals to attempt to reach each main concerns and address them each accordingly.

Survey Result Statement	Action Step
More communication needed: We need to show what we are doing with the extra 30 minutes, scheduling changes, Monday opportunities, etc.	Create a blog designated just for communications about four-day week information.  It will be linked to the Pleasantville web page
Christmas break was too long	A Shorter Christmas break: December 22 - January 3rd (13 days v. 19 days)
Too many activities were in the school on days off	Create a facilities use policy for the four-day weeks and communicate that with parents and community.
Too much homework given to compensate for the day off	Utilize larger group assignments during four-day weeks. Teachers will utilize a shared calendar.  This will allow teachers to view each teacher’s homework and test schedule. This will assist in planning of exams and larger assignments.
Concern on academics	Analyze multiple sources of data.  Communicate the results to students, staff, parents, and community.

3.)  After living this schedule for one year, we have some great ideas to benefit our students:

• We will be contacting colleges and universities in the area to attempt to set up a partnership with their education departments.  We will attempt to have colleges create practicum classes in which our students can receive instruction/tutoring from future educators during our Mondays we are not in session.  This could be a huge benefit to our kids learning.
• With the addition to our 1 to 1 laptop program, we will be looking at different ways to communicate and collaborate with technology on Mondays.
• We can continue to provide Instructional Decision Making (IDM) services in the Middle School and provide Advisor/Advisee (seminar) time in the high school.

We look forward to the year ahead. The opportunities we receive through the four-day week schedule are great. We hope to communicate the ins and outs of what is going on through this blog so everyone can get a better sense of the importance of this initiative.