Voters in the Grandview R-2 School District will decide on April 7 whether it can continue four-day school weeks for the next decade.
The school district first implemented the four-day schedule – Tuesdays through Fridays – during the 2019-2020 school year.
Superintendent Matt Zoph said he expects the measure to pass.
“We did do a survey last year, and one of our questions was how everybody felt about the four-day week and the public. We got about 80 percent approval on the four-day week so unless there’s people that we don’t reach without students, I think the people in the community that have students in the district overwhelmingly like it,” he said.
Since introducing the four-day week, Zoph said, teachers and students have greatly benefited from it.
“One of the biggest (benefits) is that it’s a stress releaser for teachers. We’re getting more candidates for jobs and if you look at our test scores over the last three or four years since we went to a four-day week, our test scores have actually improved,” he said. “I have been doing a lot of research over the last two years on countries like Finland who is number one in the world for education, and they do a four-day week, maybe we can tweak as we go forward to learn something or improve.”
Zoph said the district received pushback initially when changing over to its current schedule but hasn’t received much since.
“Most of the comments I hear are all positive and wanting to keep it and hope we keep it,” he said.
Background
In May 2024, former Gov. Mike Parson signed an omnibus school bill, which requires districts in charter counties or cities with more than 30,000 residents to seek voter approval before moving to a four-day week.
Lucas Bond, Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) chief communications officer, said districts that have four-day school weeks will need to hold a public vote before July 1, to continue operating under that schedule for the following school year.
He said a simple majority vote would allow a school district to continue operating under a four-day school week for 10 years, and after that, another public vote would be required by law.
According to a DESE document, 188 school districts in the state follow a four-day schedule as of the 2024-2025 school year.
Two other Jefferson County school districts, Crystal City and Sunrise R-9, use a four-day schedule.
