Lone Tree

In a December district update video, Lone Tree Superintendent Tyler Hotz announced that just under two-thirds of parents support a change to a 4-day school week, with “somewhat” and “strong” responses lumped together. On Wednesday, Jan. 17, this idea was put to the test in the first public forum on the topic.

The forum began with a detailed presentation from Hotz. Afterwards, parents were encouraged to consider advantages and disadvantages with their tablemates to help aid discussion.

Many parents attending the public forum tended to be in the minority.

Concerns from parents included daycare; the inability to return to a 5-day schedule once implemented; the idea that a 4-day week could be detrimental for learning; the idea that a 3-day weekend could create bad habits; potential burnout due to longer days; a later release time that could affect students who travel to Kirkwood after school; and athletes who would miss even more of their final class due to practices and games.

Daycare is easily the number one concern. Some parents at the forum said they’d consider leaving the district due to daycare. The school does not have a plan ready to implement but hopes to have some answers at future public forums.

Some parents brought studies which find fault with a 4-day schedule. However, Hotz referenced various studies which support it. Contradictory evidence appears to exist regarding whether a 4-day week is beneficial for student learning.

The school day for teachers would be 7:45 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. A student’s day would be 8 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. Forty-five minutes would be added to each day to ensure the school covers their required 1,080 hours without having to extend the length of the school year. It is unknown if longer school days would increase the likelihood of burnout for students or staff.

Advantages that stood out include a more consistent schedule with no early-out Wednesdays and three-day weekends that would allow students more time to focus on their futures. Teachers would have an additional day to plan for classes. Hourly employees would have a choice of five 8-hour days or four 10-hour days.

The board later discussed the forum during their public meeting. Board President Robert Sladek stated, “The negative impact for the 33% is [potentially] much worse than the gain of the 67,” regarding the negative comments at the forum compared to the poll conducted previously. Sladek supported gathering more information from the public before making a decision.

Lone Tree will host two more public forums to gather additional information and provide more answers. The first will be Saturday, Jan. 27 at 9 a.m. in the school cafeteria and the second will be on Monday, Feb. 5 at 6:30 p.m., also in the cafeteria.

The board hopes to make a final decision on the 2024-25 school calendar at their February board meeting.

Snow make-up day

Friday, May 3, 2024, was initially slated as a Teacher Inservice Day. However, due to recent snow days and late starts, the board decided to add this day to the calendar to make up for time lost.

The school remains over their minimum hour limit of 1,080, but adding an additional day ensures them one more full snow day, if necessary, without the need to add additional days.

Lone Tree’s Athletic Booster Club

The board was visited by Ashley Zaruba and Gina Burke, the athletic booster club representatives, to discuss improving the school’s athletic equipment. Activities Director Joe Donovan estimated the school would need to raise $20,000 to fully transform the equipment room, and the club is on track to do just that.

The club is prepared to provide $5,000 to $7,000 that they’ve raised for the project. They hoped the board would match their donation, giving the school anywhere from $10,000 to $14,000.

The club is also on the Tuesday, Mar. 19 agenda for the Riverboat Foundation where they will present a detailed list of items they’d like to purchase or replace, working with Donovan. The Riverboat Foundation could match the funds raised by the school, meaning the project could result in up to $28,000 dollars to use on new equipment, a substantial improvement for the athletes of Lone Tree.

The new equipment would be for school-use only.

The News will follow this development closely.

Public hearings and next meeting

The board set their two required public hearings for the school’s budget. The first will come before the board workshop on April 3 and the second will be before the regular meeting on April 17.

The Lone Tree school board will next meet for a workshop on Wednesday, Feb. 7 in the district office. This meeting will follow two additional public forums on the 4-day calendar which will likely be discussed.