The Dublin ISD school board recently spent time reviewing the results of a survey asking the public opinion about the possibility of moving to a four-way school week.
At its Monday, Jan. 23 meeting, Superintendent Melissa Summers shared the results of a survey taken by staff, students and parents in the past few weeks. These survey results are public on the district website under the school board agenda tab.
“We had a site base meeting last week where we got additional feedback in addition to the survey and I’m still just welcoming feedback and thoughts on this,” Superintendent Melissa Summers said. “There are pros and cons on both sides.”
Summers said at this time, she doesn’t feel confident on making a decision. She said she would be taking the next few weeks to bring back a couple of calendar options just for the board to see.
“I think that would help too— To let them know if we are tagging them on at the end of the year and what the daily schedule would look like,” School board member Anjelica Salyer said.
Summers said another consideration is keeping the three weeks off at Christmas, which everyone seems to prefer.
“Not only are we looking at four-day but there are also a lot of suggestions in there that I think we should look at, because we are getting some good feedback,” School board member Pat Leatherwood said.
Salyer agreed with Leatherwood and said she was blown away by the student feedback and comments.
With students from seventh through 12th grade that took the survey, 48% were against a four-day school week and 42% were in favor.
Student comments ranged from students being concerned with extra costs for childcare for their parents, still wanting long holidays, shorter time to work after school each day, less family time, concern about missing church on Wednesdays and longer school days.
Summers said she was surprised by the student survey results too, and it emphasized a need to thoroughly consider all options before a decision could be made.
The main reason for the four-day week is teacher recruitment and retention.
With teachers, 67.8% were in favor of a four-day work week and the majority was OK with longer school days.
Teachers were concerned with students getting an additional recess with that longer school day along with a need to retain the longer holidays. They were also concerned with parental supervision for the extra day students would be off.
“Most of Dublin families are low income. We must consider if they will be able to afford to keep their kids at home. This means higher electrical bills, groceries bills and for some childcare fees. I am in favor of a 4-day school week, but let’s do what is best for our students and their parents,” one teacher wrote in the survey.
School board member Blanca Martineau said to her, the thing that was most important is the parents. In the survey, it was stated that 41.7% would have to pay for childcare.
“That part as a working mother is important to me and we should take a little bit more consideration,” Martineau said.
“The cons are you don’t want to place any more stress or burden on the families,” Summers said.
Generally, the school district approves its calendar in March, so the decision would need to be made in the next couple of months.
The following contracts were also renewed at the meeting: Terri White (Assistant Superintendent), Norma Briseno (DHS Principal), Greg Hardcastle (Athletic Director), Kassi Eads (Business Manager), Ron Luedke (Band Director), PaigeJohnson(J.H.Principal), Amanda Lisso (Intermediate Principal), Kalley Mitchell (ElementaryPrincipal),Cedric Ivie (DHS Asst. Principal), Brandy Carr (Intermediate A.P.), Ryan Lewis (Elementary A.P.), Kimberly Bradford (Elementary Counselor), Maegan Ralston (Intermediate Counselor), Holly Curry (J.H. Counselor), Kimberly Perez (Girls Athletic Coordinator) and Shannon Ivey-McCarley (Instructional Specialist).