Jackson (KY) schools' week cut to 4 days

[deadparrot]

McKEE -- Across Kentucky, school districts are cutting field trips, redrawing bus routes or curtailing athletic events to cope with rising fuel costs. But no one's making quite as dramatic a change as Jackson County.

Starting the week of Oct. 17, students will get every Friday off. Teachers will work half a day.

With the move, approved by the school board Sept. 5, Jackson becomes the fourth school district in the state to implement a four-day week, and the first to do so primarily for financial reasons.

It's probably not going to be the last. Brad Hughes, spokesman for the Kentucky School Boards Association, predicts the subject will be as hot a topic as year-round schools were a decade ago.

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/12719269.htm

[kentuck]

1. Yep...We'll probably lose our top spot in education because of this..

Now, we'll be down there with California and Mississippi... <sarcasm>

[seabeyond]

2. and all those two worker family homes are now going

to be spending that much more on day care. bet they are thrilled. kids already are having education cut because of lack of money now literally they will with a day less of school. this is just ridiculous. america, doing good. cant afford kids to go to school five days a week. first time in our history. we dont see a problem here.

wow

gotta get this out talking to these repugs. this is wrong in so many ways.

[Straight Shooter]

5. No kidding. That "party of family values" is looking out for KY kids.

But according to bush, the kids can grow up and go to community college and that will make up for everything.

:sarcasm:

[delete_bush]

3. It's not like we need edumacation to compete

in the global economy. After all, it's difficult to outsource fast food industry jobs.

[nonconformist]

4. I've heard that some area districts have been considering this

Primarily for financial reasons.

I feel confident in saying that KY will go blue for both governor and president in the next elections. I STILL can't believe that senile inept Bunning won. :( (I worked on Mongiardo's campaign, what a heartbreaker)

[theHandpuppet]

8. Is Mongiardo going to consider another run?

Kentucky could sure use that guy. I couldn't believe they chose to re-elect that certifiable nutcase, Bunning!

[nonconformist]

10. I'm not really sure.

I expect him too, however. He's pretty young and still making a name for himself, so I would be surprised if he didn't.

Bunning made such a fool of himself before the election, I'm still amazed he won. Mongiardo overwhelmingly won my county. :)

[nonconformist]

6. Kick for our public schools that are running out of money. nt

[dsc]

7. After reading the whole article

it is clear that this can work. I know some NC districts were seriously thinking about this when our gas prices spiked. It should be noted that time is added to each day so instructional time stays roughly the same. That school added an hour, here it would need to be an hour and a half to keep the same amount of instructional time. Remember lunch eats up a significant amount of time in many schools and isn't instructional time.

I do think the lack of planning in implimentation is a serious concern here but in theory this isn't the evil thing people are suggesting.

[nonconformist]

9. I think that there are other issues at stake though

For one, a lack of funding is causing extra-curricular activities and field trips to be cancelled as well. That IS a detriment.

Two, and I think this could be huge for many families, is the childcare situation. Arranging and/or paying for that extra full day of care might be a real hurdle.

Plus, while this part is just an opinion, as a parent I don't really like the idea of that extra hour and 3 day weekends. Situations like that are great for the adult working world, but for children I'm not so sure. Kids are worked harder in school today than when we were kids, that's for sure. I'm not convinced that the quality of the educational experience would be the same with a longer school day coupled with longer breaks between weeks to fall off track. That said, this is just my opinion as a parent and might not be a very big issue.

Still, I think extra-curricular cuts and childcare issues are a cause for concern with this.

[dsc]

11. I agree that lack of funding is a problem

Extracurriculars would probably be in no worse a position from this since they would have that Friday for practice.

The 3 day weekends could be a problem but I would have to see data on that.

Daycare was actually discussed in the article. The other districts had trained teenagers to be daycare providers with local churches donating space. Sounded like a fairly elegant solution to me. Clearly the district in this article didn't do this so maybe they should wait to impliment this plan until they can. The haphazard preperation is a big problem here.

[nonconformist]

12. Yeah, we'll just have to watch this trend and see what happens.

I am concerned about the funding issues, because I've heard a lot of talk here in KY about it even before the latest gas price woes. My oldest son is involved in several activities - choir, academic team and gifted programs - that are already being threatened by this administration, so I worry.

[dsc]

14. the four day week might save those

by saving cost on transportation they can spend it on extra curriculars. I hate seeing stuff like that cut, it is shameful.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

13. No Child Left Behind except in N.O., Kentucky, jConnecticut, Florida, ...

[Roland99]

15. But...but....but...the economy is robust.Jobs are plentiful. $$ everywhere

However did this happen?

[all.of.me]

16. and now parents have to scramble for child care

they should also cut the work week!