'Take some time': Parents urge school board to push four-day school week decision

More than half of Southern Boone parents are concerned about the impact of a four-day school week on their family while nearly 60% of staff support the move, according to results of the latest community survey.

Parents, staff and students in seventh through 11th grades were able to participate in the latest survey. The Southern Boone School District also held a community meeting on Nov. 18.

The district invited Katherine Hairston, the executive associate director of leadership development at the Missouri School Board Association, to moderate the community forum. Superintendent Tim Roth and members of the Southern Boone School Board answered questions from the audience. Those attending submitted written questions but frequently stood up to ask follow-up questions.

District performance and challenges

Southern Boone received a 95.9% on the Annual Performance Report conducted by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. The district was 10th in the state for the highest total percentage of possible points earned during the review.

“Why would we change a formula that seems to be working when studies show… that kids’ learning may be negatively impacted?” Amy Pierce asked.

Board member Heather Brown pointed to newer studies that have found districts that switched to a four-day week and maintained 30 to 32 hours of instruction per week see minimal negative impact on student academic outcomes, as well as studies that found most statistically significant negative impacts occurred in non-rural districts.

According to the proposed calendar, students would attend school from 7:50 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, roughly 30.67 hours of instruction per week.

Currently, the district has 1,086.95 hours of student instruction in 167 days. The draft 2026-27 four-day week calendar would comprise 1,074.13 hours of student instruction in 148 days, around 1% fewer hours than students currently receive.

Board member Jeremy Galloway later circled back to the district’s primary motivation for looking into the calendar.

“The reason to move to this is to ultimately attract and retain teachers” and to “improve that student learning through the retention of those better teachers,” Galloway said.

A 2024 Education Week survey found that, nationally, 70% of teachers said they support a four-day school week.

Of the surveyed Southern Boone teacher and staff, 59% said they strongly support or somewhat support the possibility of a four-day school week. In comparison, around 9% said they felt neutral, and 32% of respondents said they strongly oppose or somewhat oppose the change. There were 178 responses to the staff survey.

More than half of respondents said they would be more likely to continue their employment with the district if it moved to a four-day school week, and 52% said the change would have a positive impact on their work-life balance.

A quarter of Southern Boone teachers and staff said they currently work a second job or would utilize their off day for additional income.

“(Teachers) absolutely love Southern Boone,” Brown said Tuesday evening. “But there comes a point where they need to be making money for their family.”

Roth said in a statement on Nov. 24 that Southern Boone “operate(s) in a competitive region where nearby larger school districts benefit from significantly larger commercial property tax bases.”

Columbia Public Schools and Jefferson City Public Schools offer starting certified teacher salaries more than $3,000 higher than those of Southern Boone, and the gap increases with tenure.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, Missouri ranks last — 50th out of 50 states — in the nation with the lowest portion of state aid in its public school funding. Thirty percent of Missouri public school revenue comes from state sources, compared to the national average of 46%.

Roth said neighboring states invest “far more,” with Kansas contributing 63% of its state budget, Iowa 53%, and Kentucky 47%.

“Because Missouri contributes so little, local communities must shoulder a much larger share of school funding than in most other nearby states,” he said.

Roth also said the geographical situation makes it more challenging for the district to compete financially, as most of Southern Boone’s property tax revenue comes from residential and agricultural properties rather than commercial ones.

“Ashland is a fast-growing community, but primarily a residential one,” he said.

“New homes are being built, but residential property does not generate the level of tax revenue compared to commercial property,” Roth said. “The addition of new businesses contributes significantly more revenue per parcel — but our commercial growth has not kept up with our residential expansion.”

Roth added that the difference between commercial and residential tax revenue is “substantial,” as districts in Columbia and Jefferson City benefit from the presence of shopping centers, hospitals and “extensive commercial development” that “provides them the financial capacity to offer more competitive salaries and expanded programs.”

“Southern Boone simply does not have access to the same level of commercial revenue,” he said.

Brown said the district is “between a rock and a hard place,” and the board is considering “all options” to ensure its decision is what is best for the children and teachers.

Jason Thomas asked the board why teachers who live outside the district choose to continue working at Southern Boone despite its pay discrepancies with competitors. He noted that around 56% of surveyed teachers live outside the district.

Roth said Southern Boone’s best selling points are its community, class sizes, administrative support and Ashland’s small-town feel.

He also noted administrators are increasingly being asked at job fairs whether their district is on a four-day calendar. Brown said young teachers and teachers who prioritize work-life balance seem to be drawn to the alternative calendar.

“We may never be competitive dollar for dollar with Jefferson City or Columbia (Public Schools), but anything that can get us closer to that, I think, is a win for our teachers and our community, and especially our kids,” Board member Chris Femlee said.

Not all teachers are fans of the change, and many supporters still have concerns about the logistics and impacts of moving to a four-day school week.

Only 31% of staff respondents said they had no concerns. Others, however, expressed concerns about covering material, revising the curriculum, longer school days, child care and the impact on learning.

More than a quarter of respondents indicated that the change could make covering their curriculum in a truncated week more difficult, and 17% said there would be no benefit to them or their family from the change.

Students weigh in

Earlier this month, the board surveyed students in seventh through 11th grade about the proposal to better gauge their feelings about changing to a four-day school week. There were 626 responses from students.

Nearly half of the surveyed students indicated they currently feel overwhelmed or stressed almost always or often during the school week. And 63% of students said that having a three-day weekend would improve their overall mental health or reduce their stress levels, while 19% said it would not.

According to the survey, 56% of students said they strongly or somewhat support a four-day school week, while 37% strongly or somewhat oppose the switch.

One parent said she thinks the longer school day, necessary to reallocate instructional hours, would be “overwhelming.” She said mornings are already difficult and an earlier start time would push bus pickup times even earlier, and that she doesn’t think students could “handle a large amount of instructional hours without having some sort of breaks.”

Board president Amy Begeman said that concern has been raised by board and committee members and is not a forgotten factor in their ongoing consideration of the calendar.

Approximately 46% of parent respondents to the most recent survey indicated that they would not support a longer school day. Nearly a quarter of teachers said they did not believe students could remain engaged or focused during longer days.

Surveyed students also seemed to be wary of extending their day, with around 41% indicating a longer school day would be “too long.”

Jessica DiGennaro said her high schoolers told her they would rather move than remain in Southern Boone if the district switched to a four-day school week.

However, 58% of students said they felt the longer school day would be “manageable.”

Limited data

The board has acknowledged the absence of substantial quantities of “hard data” proving that the calendar change would improve recruitment or retention, as well as other quantifiable data about its impact, whether negative or positive.

Begemen said board members have “asked (districts and experts) for multitudes of data related to retention of teachers, scoring of students, all of those components,” and found that anecdotal and qualitative data are the majority of what is available.

“There is not statistically significant information or data related to an HR component, like vacancy rates or turnover rates, true to before and after implementation,” she said.

Many districts either do not collect or quantify data that would provide this information. Most studies about the four-day school week acknowledge the limitations of the data and the questions that still cannot be answered with statistically significant findings.

“That makes (us) a little bit apprehensive to move one way or the other,” Begeman said, “knowing that we don’t have solid data from those kinds of components.”

An audience member later asked Begeman if it would be “responsible” for the board to make “this drastic change” at this time, given the limitations of available data.

Begeman said limited data means the community forums and surveys from teachers, parents and students are the “puzzle pieces” board members are “trying to put into place” to help them “make an informed decision as best (they) can.”

Timeline considerations

Femlee said the primary purpose of the evening’s forum was to gain a better understanding of what the community is saying, since “the data … is really 50/50.” He said some districts spent over a year gathering information before reaching a decision, prompting parent Brian Strong to press him on why the board was “forcing” the decision to be made in December.

Galloway said the board votes at its December meeting each year to approve the calendar for the following school year. He said the consideration is “ongoing” and would not be off the table even after the board’s upcoming vote.

Begeman said the board has discussed pushing the vote during work sessions.

Strong asked the board to “take some time and listen to everybody,” saying “it’s not a dire situation that the district will come to this conclusion next month.”

He said parents think the board is rushing the decision and intending to move forward with the change without significant data, which Galloway, Femlee, Barrett Glascock and Karen Bill all said is not the case.

Several audience members, including Rex Cocroft, agreed with Strong’s sentiment.

“I’m reassured by what I heard here tonight,” Cocroft said near the forum’s close. However, he suggested that the board should take more time to gather additional information, conduct research and explore other options to increase teacher salaries.

“I would encourage that, if you’re still in favor of it, at least give yourselves more time,” Cocroft said, prompting scattered applause throughout the auditorium.

Begeman thanked the audience for their honest feedback and again said the board would take all raised concerns into account for the vote.

Child care, food insecurity and family concerns

An anonymous audience member asked how the district plans to provide “support for working families” by providing child care on the fifth day. One of the most pressing concerns about a four-day school week remains the incurred costs of child care or days off for working parents.

According to the survey, 36% of parent respondents and 19% of teacher respondents said that a four-day school week would create a child care challenge for their families. And 22% of surveyed students reported that having an extra day at home could pose challenges for them or their family.

Galloway and Brown both acknowledged these concerns and mentioned that the district is in talks to potentially broaden its existing partnerships with local child care organizations, such as the YMCA, as a solution.

One creative solution offered by a teacher in the audience was the opportunity for high schoolers to babysit on their Mondays off to earn money and help working parents.

Other options

Michelle Doley asked the board what other ideas and solutions they are considering implementing if the four-day week does not go through.

Begeman shared discussions about just that had taken place hours earlier in the board’s finance meeting, and the finance committee is actively reviewing its compensation packages and steps to see where the district can offer more, as well as what staff positions the district could choose not to rehire and absorb the cost savings to provide additional revenue for teacher salaries.

Brown and April Georgetti said increasing class sizes and decreasing the number of certified teacher positions could allow the district to pay teachers more. However, small class sizes are not only statistically proven to be best for student achievement and educators’ mental health, but also one of the district’s main selling points.

Galloway said the district’s class size ratio is not only better than the state average but also better than that of surrounding districts.

Another option would be to increase the district’s operating tax levy, which is the amount of taxes the district receives from its residents to use as revenue.

Currently, the district’s operating tax levy is at its ceiling, sitting at $4.1846 per $100 of assessed value, meaning any increase to the levy would require the district to put the increase to a vote in the next election. Salary and benefits accounted for nearly 74% of the district’s total operational expenditures in the 2025-26 annual budget, leaving the district with limited corners to cut.

“In recent years, we have implemented raises, expanded the career ladder program, revised salary schedules to provide better advancement opportunities, and invested in health insurance contributions to support all staff,” Roth said.

“Even so, without stronger state investment in public education and increased commercial growth within our community, our ability to significantly increase teacher salaries remains limited,” he said.

“We will continue to advocate locally and statewide for stable and sustainable funding systems that truly support students, educators, and public schools. Our community values strong schools, and with greater support at the state level, we can continue building the excellent learning environment our students and families expect,” Roth said.

Community feedback

According to the survey, 45% of parent respondents said the four-day school week would have no benefit for their family, and 52% said it would negatively impact their family. There were 910 responses to the parent survey.

Begeman said the board has already sought legal counsel on whether Senate Bill 727 would require the community to approve the calendar change at the ballot.

The district boundaries do not touch any cities with more than 30,000 residents, meaning the law does not apply to Southern Boone.

However, Begeman said the board has discussed sending the decision to the ballot anyway, and the option is part of the ongoing conversations about a four-day school week.

Nearly 53% of respondents to the most recent community survey said they were strongly opposed or opposed to the change. In comparison, 12% said they were undecided, and 32% are in favor or strongly in favor.

Board members said they have yet to reach a decision of their own ahead of the December vote and are continuing to weigh data, studies and community feedback to determine their respective choices.

Board members encouraged the community to attend the next school board meeting at 6:30 p.m. Dec. 15 at the Southern Boone Central Office, where the board will vote on the calendar for the 2026-27 school year.