The Sunrise R-9 School District will switch to a four-day week for the 2019-2020 school year, holding classes on Tuesdays through Fridays.
It is the second public school district in Jefferson County to make the move to four school days each week.
In February, the Grandview R-2 School District announced it would change to a four-day week, also holding classes Tuesday through Friday.
“The four-day week is becoming kind of a trend in Missouri,” Sunrise Superintendent Armand Spurgin said.
At the start of the 2018-2019 school year, 34 of the state’s 518 public school districts and 36 charter education agencies reported that they intended to have four-day school weeks, said Nancy Bowles, spokesperson for the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
“When the year is over, they report whether or not they actually did go to a four-day week,” Bowles said.
She said DESE will not know how many school districts intend to switch to a four-day week for 2019-2020 until the start of the new school year.
Sunrise, which has a campus at 4485 Sunrise School Road west of De Soto, enrolls 338 students in preschool through eighth-grade, and 90- to 95 percent of its outgoing eighth-graders end up going to De Soto High School, Spurgin said.
He said he suggested the move to a four-day week, and the Sunrise Board of Education voted 6-0 March 19 to make the change.
“This was a couple-month-long process,” Spurgin said.
While Grandview officials said their move was designed to attract and retain teachers, the Sunrise school board had several reasons for making the change, Spurgin said.
“First and foremost, student performance,” he said. “We contacted 30 districts (that have four-day per week class schedules), and they either stayed the same or went up in academic performance. That was important to us.”
Spurgin said other superintendents told him the four-day week also seems to improve attendance and keep teachers from leaving.
“Their attendance went up,” he said. “Then, teacher retention – it does help with that.”
Spurgin said the switch should not have a significant financial impact on the district, with an estimated savings around $15,000 a year.
Sunrise’s operating budget for 2018-2019 is $4,283,285, he said.
Spurgin said district officials polled staff before making the move, and the district’s 65 staff members overwhelming supported a four-day school week. A poll of parents also showed the majority supported it, although not as overwhelmingly.
“The survey showed that 88 percent of the teachers are for it,” Spurgin said. “We did a poll of parents and 65 percent supported it, with 176 yes, 94 no.
The Sunrise board members who voted for the switch were David Sebastian, Sue Dennis, Amber Henry, Joe Heuer, Andrew Coleman and Rebecca Hooper. Board member Joe Williams did not attend the meeting.
Spurgin said not all the decisions about the new four-day schedule have been decided.
“Basically, we’re eliminating 10 days out of our calendar,” he said. “When I spoke to the other superintendents, all are off on Mondays. Labor Day, Martin Luther King Day, Presidents Day are all on Mondays. All of our professional development days will be on Mondays.
“We will be adding 27 minutes to the school days (Tuesday through Friday),” Spurgin said.
However, he said the exact times for the earlier starts or later dismissals had not been determined yet.
The Sunrise school day currently runs from 8:10 a.m. to 3:15 p.m.
De Soto Board of Education members discussed the Sunrise district’s switch to four days at their March 21 meeting since many Sunrise students attend De Soto High School after graduating from eighth grade. “Their kids will still need to follow our schedule if they attend high school here,” De Soto Superintendent Josh Isaacson said.