Persuasive Essay On Four Day School Week

A Four-Day School Week is Undoubtedly the Best Choice
School can be known as a dreadful reality of everyday life for a countless number of people. Students and teachers all over the country are constantly looking forward to the next day off of school. Often times students find every excuse to miss school, even if it’s just for a couple of hours. Having to go to school five days in a row with only a two day break is a lot to handle for most people. Many schools are converting from a five-day school week to a four-day school week for many different reasons. Colby Public Schools needs to implement a four day school week because it helps lower the stress levels of students and teachers, improves overall attendance, and saves excess amounts of money.
To begin, Colby Public Schools should convert to a four-day school week because it

reduces the stress levels of students. Students often stress about time. They feel as though they have no time to get anything accomplished with the few short hours after school, and the weekends full of family plans, friends, and other activities. If students are stressed, they tend to be on edge, ready to snap at all times. This means that teachers are having more trouble with students in the classroom, more often. In an article about the effect a four-day week has on students, it is stated that, “Because of a reduction in stress and the regiment of a five-day week, disciplinary issues were down 40%” (Bisk 4). Because of the reduction of stress, and an extra day of relaxation each week, the students were acting up almost half as much as they would during a five-day week. Another benefit of a four-day school week is that it improves overall attendance in the school systems.
Besides reducing stress levels in students, a four day school week also improves overall attendance with students and teachers. Every time a staff member or student has an appointment, long vacation, or is sick, they have to miss school. If Colby implemented a four-day school week, students and teachers would be able to schedule things that would otherwise cause missed school, for the day that they had off every week. Just switching to a four-day week would save the school money on substitute teachers, because of improved teacher attendance. Substitute teacher costs alone decrease by an average of 76% in schools that went to a four-day school week (Bisk 4). This statistic shows that teacher attendance has improved by a substantial amount. Also, author Katherine Bradley reported that “The Melstone School District in Melstone, Mont., has reported statistics indicating that their attendance improved as much as 20% over a two-year period after moving to a four-day school week” (1). This proves that the shorter school week betters the attendance in schools. In return, this could mean money saved for these districts.
Another benefit in the application of a four-day week, is that it can obviously save the schools money.

Because of the extra day off every week, there is money saved from things such as lunches, bussing, staff salaries, and utility costs. In an article about the advantages of a four day school week, it is stated that “Transportation costs including fuel, bus maintenance and driver salaries are reduced. Also, if facilities are used only four days per week instead of five, there is a significant reduction in utility costs to the system. Money spent to fund school breakfast and lunch programs are reduced by 20 percent, as is spending associated with all hourly cafeteria and custodial workers” (Bradley 2). In another article through the University of Scranton, they say “Transportation costs [are] down 35 percent, and utility costs are down by 8 percent” (Bisk 4). Based on these statistics, schools can save enough money, to make the conversion worth it. These are just some of the things the schools can save money on, there are others, but these alone prove that schools save favorable amounts of money when they shorten their week by just a

day.
It is true that there will be some younger students who will need daycare on the off day. Some kids don’t have older siblings to watch them, or parents that stay home everyday. However, there are many places in Colby that provide daycare for kids. Other than that, there are always responsible older kids who would be willing to babysit those kids on the extra day off. This will also teach these kids a greater work ethic. On these days, parents can take their kids to the same place that they do during the summer. Therefore, there is no reason that Colby shouldn’t switch to a four-day school week.
In summary, it is very important that Colby Public Schools make the switch to a four-day school week. There are so many benefits in schools who have implemented the shorter week. Schools are reporting that their attendance has improved with the four-day week. Also, the shorter week greatly reduces the stress levels of students and teachers. Besides that, participating schools save an abundance of money, all by just taking one day out of the week. The cure-all for the issues in Colby’s district is to just simply shorten the week for our schools. It is important that each patron in the community at least attempt to persuade the school board, along with our administrators, to get on board with the four-day school week.