AISD board continues 4-day instructional week
Surveys and dialogue with business community inform decision
By Toni Garrard Clay/AISD Communications Coordinator
It’s official. Athens ISD’s four-day instructional week will continue for the foreseeable future. A three-year pilot program for the Monday-through-Thursday classroom schedule launched in the fall of 2019, with a particular eye toward retaining and recruiting the best possible educators for classroom instruction. During Monday night’s regular Athens ISD board meeting, trustees approved the 2022-2023 calendar, which continues the four-day instructional week past the pilot stage.
“When we began this in 2019, it was not a foregone conclusion that it would continue beyond the third school year. Our intention was always to collect data and listen to community feedback,” said AISD Superintendent Dr. Janie Sims. “Over the past few months, that’s what we’ve been working to do.”
In November, Sims hosted several community business leaders at a luncheon, during which she urged attendees to speak freely about their experiences and that of their employees in regard to the district’s schedule. The feedback was decidedly positive.
Additionally, parents and guardians had the opportunity during the second half of November to complete a four-day week opinion survey, as did all employees in a separate survey. The results on both are overwhelmingly in favor of continuing the current instructional week.
“We know it presents challenges for some of our families, and especially so for working families with young children,” said AISD Board President Eugene Buford. “We’re not discounting that reality at all. But the majority of the responses from our families tell us to keep the four-day week going. Not only that, but the main goal behind this schedule was to retain and find the best educators for our students, and our own employees are telling us it’s doing just that.”
Seventy-six percent of respondents on the parent/guardian survey agreed with the statement: “The four-day instructional week has had a mostly positive effect on my student(s) and/or family.” Eight percent said they were “undecided or unable to determine,” and 16 percent disagreed with the statement.
In another question on the survey, 65 percent of respondents agreed that “my student(s) are as successful or more successful than they would be in a traditional school week.” Eighteen percent said they were “undecided or unable to determine,” and 17 percent disagreed with the statement.
On the employee survey, 82 percent of respondents indicated they believe the overall impact of the four-day instructional week to be either very or somewhat beneficial for students. Additionally, 24 percent of respondents said they came to Athens ISD because of the work week, with another 53 percent indicating it plays a part in their decision to stay at AISD.
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