Lipan ISD moving to 5-day modified/hybrid schedule in fall

LIPAN — After months of discussion about potentially changing to a four-day school week, the Lipan ISD School Board voted unanimously on Feb. 22 to move to a five-day modified/hybrid schedule beginning in the fall.

The five-day modified/hybrid schedule will go into effect during the 2023-2024 academic year and will consist of students having four-day weekends every six weeks or a three-day weekend once a month — similar in structure to Brock ISD’s calendar.

Discussion about possibly moving to a four-day school week first began last August as a way for the district to retain current staff and to draw in more applicants for open positions.

A committee consisting of 10 local parents and 10 Lipan elementary and high school teachers was formed to discuss the possibility of transitioning to either a four-day school week or a five-day modified schedule.

Vickie Posey, Lipan elementary and junior high math specialist, spoke during the Lipan school board meeting on Feb. 22, detailing the committee discussion.

She said that teachers felt that it would be harder to plan with a hybrid schedule as the days off would be more sporadic than a four-day school week. Parents said finding childcare would also be difficult with a hybrid schedule.

Posey said the committee spoke with several administrators and teachers from other school districts like Strawn, Gordon, Mineral Wells, and Aledo, which have switched to a four-day school week.

She said after Strawn ISD conducted a community-wide survey with an overwhelming majority voting for a four-day school week, the district made the switch in the fall.

Strawn administrators said since changing to a four-day school week, their student enrollment has grown by nearly one-third, and their teacher morale has improved, with several teachers stating the four-day school week "has kept them in education.”

Dewaine Lee, Strawn ISD superintendent, said he believes the four-day week is the “best thing for teachers,” and that it has greatly helped with “teacher burnout.”

After hearing from several parents and administrators from other schools, the committee took a vote for the decision they felt was best for the district. Out of 16 that voted, 11 voted for a four-day week, three were for a hybrid schedule, and two preferred a regular five-day school week.

James Lott, Lipan High School social studies teacher and coach, said he was “largely in the minority” but didn’t feel that a four-day school week was what was “best for kids.”

He explained that several students are involved in extracurriculars and sports and are already missing several days of school.

He also pointed out that only attending school four days out of the week is “not preparing them for the real world,” adding that his own children would “waste the day away” by sleeping in and playing video games.

Lott also included a recorded video from Lee answering his question on if the four-day school week is what’s best for kids.

“I don't know if this is the best thing for kids,” Lee said in the video. “I really don't, because we have kids who don't eat. They're up there running the streets. I'm not sure if it's the best thing, and I'm not here to tell you that, ‘Oh, you better do it.’ I'm not saying that. The attendance and in the scores, I don't know if anybody really knows at this point, but I know teachers love it and I know that our kids love it.”

Following presentations from both Posey and Lott, Lipan ISD Superintendent Ralph Carter read responses from seniors regarding the potential transition to a four-day school week.

Some students mentioned the pros a four-day school week would have for students who work, but also noted the detriment it would bring to students who rely on the school for food.

Jonathan Normand, Lipan secondary principal, said the primary reason for the four-day school week is to combat teacher shortages and improve their mental health, but added that the district needed to consider the disadvantaged and special needs students.

Carter chimed in that most of the bigger schools in Texas aren’t even considering the idea of shortening the school weeks.

“Dr. Glenn (superintendent) at Granbury, they're not even toying with the idea of a four-day week,” Carter said. “They think it's bad for kids. There's only 67 districts out of over 1,200 in the state of Texas that are even considering this right now, which to me says a whole lot about how the state feels.”

Carter said he had recently attended a meeting regarding the four-day a week schedule but didn’t see enough evidence that it was beneficial for students.

“I kept hearing what was good for adults, I kept hearing what was good for staff, and I'm all for that, but I think there's other ways we can compensate,” he said. “The other thing I would say is, nobody's given me anything that would say it's best for kids.”

He then recommended that the district move to a five-day modified calendar.

"My recommendation would be to consider a five-day modified with extra student and staff days in places where we normally have no breaks,” Carter said. “For example, October was a long month. March can be a long month, February can be long, April can be long, so I think we can intersperse some days in there and modify our calendar in a way that would benefit both teachers and students to give them needed breaks — that would be my recommendation.”

Nikki Callaway, Lipan ISD board member, agreed that she didn’t see enough proof that the four-day schedule would benefit students, while Lipan ISD Secretary Ellyn Grove said she needed more data on the four-day school week.

After a unanimous decision to move to a five-day modified schedule, Carter said the board will put together a calendar for the 2023-2024 academic year. The calendar will list the new days off but will still include the mandatory 75,600 minutes that Texas schools must be open a year.

Carter finished the discussion by adding that “this is a transition year,” meaning the schedule may change again after the district reevaluates staff and student performance.

"This is an opportunity for us to look to see if modifying that schedule affects kids in a positive way or a negative way and if it affects staff in a positive way or negative way,” Carter said. “Is there something we need to pull back on or is it something we need to consider even more days off to be able to do that? We can transition into a four-day if that's what we want to do over a two-to-three-year period if we start seeing good things out of what's happening.”