Carlton votes for four-day school week

Carlton students will have classes only four days a week next year, provided the district's proposal is approved by the state.

Nearly 30 members of the public were present Monday for the last of three required public hearings on the subject. After a presentation by superintendent Donita Stepan, 10 people addressed the board with voices both for and against the

proposal.

Stepan outlined the plan, mostly repeating what she had said at the previous hearings, while emphasizing certain points. Early on, she talked about the tight timeline with the Minnesota Department of Education telling districts about the rule change on March 14, and requiring an application to be submitted by April 22. Stepan used spring break to formulate a plan and briefed administrators on April 2. After a few changes, teachers were told on the next day, and on April 4, three public hearings were scheduled, starting the next week. The last one was Monday.

After the public hearing and comment, the regular school board meeting convened. A unanimous vote in favor took place after no debate, although all six board members had some remarks.

Board member Ryan Leonzal said he didn't come to the decision easily.

"It's really important for me to ... express how difficult this was as a board member, as a parent, as a coach ... this wasn't a slam dunk," said Leonzal, who then thanked members of the public for sharing their views.

Board clerk Sue Karp said Stepan initially "called all of us individually to ask what our thoughts were."

At the time, Karp had her doubts because of the newness of the idea.

"But it does align with our strategic plan," Karp said.

Board chair Julianne Emerson also brought up the strategic plan, which was formulated last year with an objective of making Carlton stand out.

The district advisory committee - which formed the strategic plan with Stepan - considered a four-day week, but set the idea aside when they learned the state education department was not allowing any more school districts to move to four days at that time.

A survey conducted by the district showed 75 percent in favor of the move with 25 percent against. The biggest issue for those against the proposal was daycare, according to Stepan. She expects Carlton's Kids Care will be able to provide Friday daycare for anyone who needs it in grades K-5 at a cost of about $800 a year.

Benefits mentioned were better rest for the students, more time for staff planning, time for teachers and families to schedule appointments, and time for "exploratory options" - those extra classes and activities that students could choose outside of traditional academics.

At the public hearing, several people came out against the idea. Steven Schmidt referenced the MDE report card issued by the state which showed the number of Carlton elementary students meeting standards in math, reading and science was only a little over 50 percent in 2023, while Carlton secondary students scored even worse.

"After seeing those lower numbers, especially at the secondary level, I would err on the side that the youth need to be in school as much as possible instead of cutting educational time," Schmidt said.

According to Stepan, Carlton students will have 25 fewer school days under the four-day plan. Put another way, student hours will go from 1,125 hours to 1,038 hours per year.

Ian Erickson was skeptical of the benefits of an off day.

"Most of these kids are going to be at home taking care of siblings having unstructured unsupervised time. I don't think it's going to be utilized as well as a lot of people are mentioning here," Erickson said. "I work from home and I've gotten to see what days off look like at home, and it is the least productive day of their week, I can promise you."

Another parent expressed concern about missing 25 days of schooling. She talked about school communications to parents she has received that stress the importance of attendance and say that losing 20 days a year K-12 is the equivalent of a year-and-a-half of school.

"After being told for years in these emails that it is important to not miss a single day if you can help it, I don't get how we went so quickly from one to the other," she said.

Other speakers praised the idea.

"This is actually something that might keep my family in the district," Tommy Jacobson said. He was intrigued by the exploratory options for Friday that Stepan listed as one of the benefits.

Secondary school counselor Amanda Radtke thought the change was necessary because kids are under too much stress.

"The one thing we can give them is time," she said.

Carlton social studies teacher Ryan Schmidt is ready for a change.

"Another speaker talked about test scores," he said. "We've been doing the same thing over and over again and that's where we're at. So I'm kind of thinking, why not try something a little bit different?"

Carlton's next task is to complete an application to MDE by April 22. Stepan predicts that Carlton will be the only district in Minnesota to do so this year, and she hopes for approval by the state within 60 days.