Besides Washoe, Clark, and Lyon counties, the other counties in Nevada have at least one school on a four-day school week schedule, including most of the remote rural schools in Humboldt County. Interest by teachers to have all schools in Humboldt County move to a four-day schedule has sparked conversation among the Humboldt County School District (HCSD) Board of Trustees.
At the regular meeting on April 25, the Trustees held a workshop in order to brainstorm important questions about what a four-day school week would look like. If eventually approved, the earliest implementation would be the 2024-2025 with preparation done during the 2023-2024 school year as per requirements by the Nevada Department of Education. They also discussed current staff vacancies.
Board President Abe Swensen was absent and Vice President Sabrina Uhlmann led the meeting.
There are many pros and cons to a different schedule, and the Trustees discussed both.
HCSD Trustee Lori Woodland said “My biggest concern is teacher retainment and recruitment,” since after all, students cannot learn without teachers.
According to HCSD officials, many of the teachers that are interviewed for positions in Humboldt County see a four-day schedule as a benefit, and with 16 vacancies still remaining for the upcoming school year (five at French Ford Middle School, including the principal position, two at Grass Valley Elementary, three at Lowry High School, four at McDermitt Combined Schools, one at the Winnemucca Grammar School and one at the Winnemucca Junior High), maintaining and enticing new teachers is critical.
Based on a survey sent to all other 16 districts by HCSD Superintendent Dr. Dave Jensen, with the 13 that have at least one school on a four-day schedule responding, eight of the 13 districts have seen a positive difference in staff recruitment.
Heavy discussion also centered around what a potential schedule would look like (with earlier starts and later end times) and how students, families, and the community would receive it, as well as academic achievement.
According to Trustee Nicole Bengochea, over 80 percent of students at the McDermitt Combined School, who have operated under a five and four-day schedule before, preferred a five-day schedule and that is why the schedule changed from a four-day back to a five-day.
The survey sent out by Dr. Jensen also found that most of the 13 schools with some form of four-day schedule did not see an increase or decrease in academic achievement once implementing the new schedule.
Dr. Jensen asked the ultimate question though— “If we do go to a four-day [week], how do you change to a four-day and how do we guarantee that we’re still going to have academic performance gains?”
The Trustees agreed collectively that having school start and end at different times would affect the flow of infrastructure for the community as well and would create new rhythms that may be hard to adjust to.
Trustee Ron Moser highlighted the significant impact that a change in schedule could have in infrastructure based on mining schedules and things alike.
Trustee Lonnie Hammargren said “The infrastructure has got to be able to withstand [a new schedule].”
The Board agreed that they would first come up with a possible schedule, with the help of teacher and staff associations, that can be presented to the community and then send out a survey to all students, including the lower grades, families, faculty and staff and other members of the community.