The Sisters School District’s recently announced plan to consider a four-day school week was in the works before the district realized the change may be a necessity.

A budget crunch may be speeding up a decision.

Superintendent Jim Golden insists there are instructional advantages to using a four-day week with longer school days, in addition to the possibility of saving the district $450,000. That amount wouldn’t fill the budget hole, as Golden estimates the district will be $800,000 short next school year. The shortfall follows a decrease in student enrollment from a high of 1,353 in 2006 to 1,138 today. Because the state funds schools on a per-student basis, fewer students means less funding.

The district also still owes the Oregon Department of Education $125,000, the remaining balance of a $1.2 million penalty for improperly reporting its home-school population beginning in 1999. There are other costs, too, including payments on full faith and credit obligations for school repairs.

“We had been talking about something similar in January,” Golden said Thursday. “But when we saw the budgets coming in, the conversation changed. The first thing you can consider is to cut staff, but we’ve been cutting for years already. We need to lose 13 to 16 people to cover the gap. You could also cut a bunch of school days, rollback compensation, eliminate all-day kindergarten or cut programs. I’m recommending we move to a four-day week.”

Golden is also proposing a bond to help cover the additional funds needed to cover the gap. Despite the current context, Golden said this conversation had already begun in an effort to improve the district.

“Change in education comes slowly — take the summer break for example,” Golden said. “Most research I’ve seen on summer break says it’s negative for student learning, but it’s a sacred cow. We had been talking about a four and a half-day week, as a means to improve Friday attendance and other things. But then as the budget became clear, we thought more seriously about it.”

The fiscal benefits of a shorter week are clear. No classes on Friday would mean savings on bus drivers, cafeteria workers and other support staff. Under Golden’s proposal, Friday would be a planning day, and teachers would be encouraged to schedule medical appointments on that day, thus reducing the number of substitutes needed and the amount of funds needed to pay them.

Having a planning day is one of the educational bonuses. The loss of class time on Friday would be more than made up for by longer days and the elimination of early release. Over the course of a year, the longer days would lead to a 66-hour increase in instruction time.

Golden also suggested student attendance may increase, noting the Corbett School District outside Portland, which is of a similar size and demographic profile as Sisters, has higher attendance rates than Sisters. After a visit to Corbett, Golden said the district has seen increased morale following the shift. Extracurricular activities could benefit too, as student athletes wouldn’t miss class on Friday while traveling for competitions.

About 50 Oregon districts, mostly small and rural, use a four-day week, according to Golden. But Sisters would be the first in the region since Redmond adopted a truncated week for the 2009-10 school year only.

Current Redmond superintendent, Mike McIntosh, who was with the district at the time as a principal, said there were no noticeable negative effects on student achievement during the switch, though he noted one year is hardly a sufficient sample to evaluate such a schedule.

“It wasn’t a huge negative in terms of being bad for kids. I would say it was just different,” McIntosh said. “Our test scores kept on the same trajectory and even improved.”

Nonetheless, McIntosh did note some negatives, including the tendency of teachers and students to seem tired at the end of the long day. Additionally, finding Friday day care, especially for lower-income families, is a challenge, though Redmond worked with other city agencies and private groups to provide subsidized care. Golden said Sisters will pursue a similar plan, if the district decides to go to a four-day week.

“We will be working with Parks and Recreation to develop options for kids and working with (the Family Access Network) to develop scholarships to help people pay for child care,” Golden said.

So what made Redmond switch back to the five-day week? McIntosh said then-Superintendent Vickie Fleming “just wanted it that way.”

McIntosh elaborated, saying, “It’s just a lot easier to run a five-day week than a four-day week.”

The ease, he said, comes from matching parents’ work life with students’ school life. He also noted that teaching in a four-day week is different than teaching in a five-day week.

“Teaching a shorter class is quite different from teaching a long one,” McIntosh said.

The situation in Sisters is not totally analogous to what Redmond faced. For example, if Sisters makes the switch, teachers won’t have to adjust to longer classes, as they already teach for 70 minutes. However, they will have one additional period each day. Also, unlike Redmond, they won’t be laying off teachers at the same time they make the transition.

The Sisters School Board will hold a workshop Wednesday to consider the switch to a four-day week.

— Reporter: 541-633-2160,tleeds@bendbulletin.com