Trustees lean toward traditional week

Albany ISD trustees offered a contract to well-known girls coach Larry Tidwell and also discussed at length their feelings about the possibility of changing to a four-day school week during a meeting on Monday, March 18.

Athletic director Ryder Peacock presentedhisrecommendation of Tidwell for the position of girls’ coordinator and head girls basketballcoach,addingthathe had interviewed several other strong candidates.

Matt Bellah’s motion to offer Tidwell a 10.5-month oneyear probationary contract, seconded by Kim Fuentes, was approved unanimously.

However, superintendent Jonathan Scott notified the News Wednesdaymorningthat Tidwell was not going to be able to accept the offer.

“We got a call this morning that he’s not going to be able to come,” Scott said.

4-Day Week A survey exploring the options of a four-day school week was made available last month to staff members, parents, and the general public, with close to 300 responses.

The trustees had gone over the survey results prior to Monday’s meeting.

Scott commented that the responders seemed to be split down the middle, with less than half “highly in favor” of a change.

Board members were “surprised” at the number of teachers who were not in favor of changing to a four-day week.

Scott commented that there was a slight majority either “highly” or “somewhat” in favor, but it was wasn’t “heavily one-sided” like it had been in other districts that had gone to a four-day week.

“Most of those districts had an 80 percent favorable response,” Scott said. “That wasn’t the case here.”

Survey responders against thechangehadstatedanumber of reasons, including finding/ paying child care for younger children, leaving older ones on their own (lack of structure) for that day, extending the school day, “compressing” instructional time even though the “minutes” would equal out, etc.

The board also considered the benefits – possibly making it easier to recruit and retain teachers, more family time for students with stay-at-home parents, possible increased student attendance rate, allowing time for appointments, etc.

“There’snotenoughresearch yet on how four-day weeks are affecting test scores,” Kim Fuentes said. “I would like to wait and see some results.”

After a lengthy discussion, the trustees agreed that they weren’t yet comfortable with committing to a four-day week.

“I feel like we’d be rushing it to start in the coming year,” Ginny Ivy said. “It’s not off the table,butIthinkweshouldwait at least another year.”

No vote was taken, and the board opted to let the District ImprovementCommitteecome up with a couple of options for the 2024-2025 school calendar to be presented at the April meeting.