Le Roy happy with four-day week

Register Reporter
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LE ROY — When faced with trying to balance the budget this winter, USD 245 in Le Roy and Gridley tired something radical: they cut school to a four day week.
Begun in January, the shorter week seems a rousing success.
“What I’ve learned from our staff is the kids are coming back (from the three day weekend) more ready to learn,” said district principal and superintendent Mike Kastle.
“I’ve heard from several teachers who say students are more focused; staff feels that” way, too, Kastle added.
To accommodate the shorter week, the district added one half hour to each school day.
“We were already doing a longer day,” he said. “We went from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.; now we go from 8 to 4. Hour wise, we spend more time with the kids this way. We’re getting the time in and getting the work done.”
At the high- and middle schools, rather than extend each class period, students were given a half hour long enrichment period at the end of the day.
“Students can go to a teacher to get extra help,” Kastle said.
They are not free to roam.
“They have to write down in a journal every day what they did with that time. A teacher has to see that and initial it,” Kastle said. As a result, “We’re seeing homework getting turned in. The kids are using that 30 minutes wisely,” he said.
Kastle said he overheard one mom ask her second grader after about a week into the new schedule how he was dealing with the lengthened day. ‘We’re here an extra half hour?’” the boy replied.
“The kids don’t even notice,” Kastle said.

Success means the new schedule is likely here to say, Kastle said.
“I sent surveys out to the teachers on three calendar possibilities for next year,” he said. Results? “Ninety to 95 percent prefer the four day week,” he said.
“Many say they know it will save money; others just said they like it better.”
So far, the district has saved $11,000, mainly on reduced transportation.
“We didn’t reduce any of our employees’ salaries. We felt that was important,” Kastle said.
One major cut that was made, however, was elimination of a principal position for Gridley schools. Kastle, who serves as Le Roy principal in addition to superintendent, merely added those duties to his job description. That change was made before the school year began, Kastle noted. The district saved between $45,000 and $50,000 with the cut, he said.
Kastle earns about $84,000 with benefits, he said. In addition, the board agreed to a $10,000 per year deferred account to be paid “when I leave here in two to four years,” Kastle said. Those payments will be made at “whatever level works for the district,” Kastle said. He acknowledges the amount may be cut before he reaches retirement, but said, “If I don’t get it, I never saw it, so it’s not a loss.”

The district has two elementary schools, one each in Gridley an Le Roy, a high school in Le Roy and a middle school in Gridley.
There are about 245 FTE students in the district, with a head count of 260, Kastle said. The discrepancy is from the way the state counts kindergarten and preschool students, Kastle said. Though they attend full time, they are counted as half time students, Kastle noted.
USD 245 has about 20 kindergartens students. Le Roy Elementary has about 70 students, Gridley 35. The middle school count is in the upper 70s; the high school has 90 students.
Activities at the middle and high school are planned for alternate days to reduce schedule conflicts for families. The schools play basketball ball on Fridays and travel for field and track, but aside form the superintendent, “everybody has the day off” and buildings are shuttered, he said.
The Friday closure has resulted in a direct savings in the districts’ food service budget.
“We have 20 percent more inventory” due to the reduced week, Kastle said. Supplies for food service had been pre-purchased, Kastle noted, and by holding over those goods, “we can have a savings next year,” as well, Kastle noted, adding, “financially, we’ll see a good impact if we continue,” the new schedule.
Utility savings, too, should be realized in next year’s budget.
This year’s hard winter meant less savings immediately, although thermostats were reduced about five degrees, to 66, in all school buildings, Kastle said.
To cut down on absences, “We’re hoping people make use of the extra day to make more of their doctor and dentist appointments,” Kastle said, “but we’ve been told some dentists and doctors don’t work on Fridays,”

Filling the gap for Friday activities is the Coffey County Library — Le Roy branch.
“When I go by the library in Le Roy it looks like they have a good crowd. We really have a good library here,” Kastle said.
Head Librarian Traci Yeager said 12 to 18 kids, mostly seven to 13 year-olds, come to “Boredom Busters” events each Friday.
Standard is bingo games.
“They win little prizes,” she noted, and one game is a physical round robin, with kids moving around the table.
“We try to make it interesting and fun for them” she said.
The library has not received grants or extras funds for the new services, but “we love having the kids in here,” Yeager said. “They’re a pretty good bunch of kids, and we’re pretty easy going,” she said. Unlike libraries of the past, Yeager said, there is no “Shhhh” rule in place in Le Roy.
Yeager said the library plans to offer the free, hour-long programs “as long as we have attendance.” Summer will bring the summer reading program, too, she said.
Library hours are 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, with extended hours until 7 p.m. on Monday and Wednesdays. Saturday hours are 9 am to noon.

Kastle noted that the board “spent a couple months ... trying to be sure we were making the right decision,” before adopting the new calendar. “There’s one family we may lose, but I think their kids would like to continue here,” he said.
Also, he noted, “We have a lot of (parents who are) Wolf Creek employees and many of them have Fridays off.”
Kastle said “It will be really interesting in another year to see if our test scores are good.” Reading assessments for 2009-2010 were just completed and those scores are up, Kastle said, although he can’t credit the change yet.
“I don’t know what the impact will be; we’ll have to compare it” over the next two to three years, he said.
Families, though, Kastle said, “really took (the change) in stride. We had several high school kids who picked up baby sitting duties.”
Most importantly, though, Kastle said, “I have not heard any complaints from families.”
Elsewhere, four day weeks are also being considered, Kastle said. “I’ve heard the state of Illinois is considering mandating a four day week” across that state.
“Its’ all fueled by the economy.”