4-Day School Week Survey Results Announced

The hot topic of discussion at the December Whitehall School Board meeting, held Monday, December 13, was the results of the 4-day school week survey. Superintendent Hannah Nieskens presented the following information, collected from the survey, which was sent in November to all parents of students in K-12. A total of 145 survey results were collected.

When the data of respondents was disaggregated by school level the following was discovered:

Elementary parents: 84 respondents total with 64 (76%) in favor of the 4-day week; 20 (24%) prefer 5 day week

6-8 parents in favor of the 4-day week: 66 respondents total with 50 (76%) in favor of the 4-day week; 16 (24%) prefer 5-day week

9-12 parents in favor of the 4-day week: 69 respondents total with 56 (81%) in favor of the 4-day week; 13 (19%) prefer 5-day week

Parents from all three schools showed a marked preference for moving to the 4-day school week.

K-8 parents only were asked: should the district move to a 4-day week, how important to you is it that the district provide a partial day 21st Century Program on Fridays? This response regarding Friday programming was quite interesting because only 19.7% of K-8 respondents indicated that a 21st Century program on Fridays was important or very important to them. 62.5% of respondents indicated it was of no importance or little importance to them. 17.9% were neutral.

It appears, Nieskens said, that overall parent sentiment is in favor of the 4-day week. After some discussion from the Board, it was determined that the next step in this process would be to convene a calendar committee to begin working on the details of what the calendar and school day would look like should the district move to a 4-day week. Ideally, this calendar would be approved through a staff vote and be submitted to the school board for final approval at the February or March meeting, depending upon the availability of the committee over the holidays and the new year.

NEW HIRES:

• Assistant Cook: Cress Whitman

• Agriculture/Technical Education: Jordayne Miller

There will be no January school board meeting; the next school board meeting is slated for Tuesday, February 7, 2023, at 7 PM.