LONE TREE

The Lone Tree Community School District hosted their second public forum discussing the four-day school week at 9 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 27. The two-hour long forum was more productive for the district and parents in attendance compared to the previous meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 17, which preceded a school board meeting and was cut short.

Most parents in attendance seemed to represent the crowd who do not support the change. Here are some of the ideas discussed:

Daycare

Daycare remained the number one topic of discussion for this sweeping change. Lone Tree Superintendent Tyler Hotz provided some answers for a potential daycare system the school could offer.

First, they could offer an Alternative Programming plan which would last the length of a school day. It would be $40 a day, as recommended by DHS. The reason for the charge is that the school cannot fund it. Instead, it needs to be self-sufficient.

Parents could contact the state to receive help paying for the program.

Parents would drop off their Pre-K through 5th grade students who would be watched by paraeducators. The paras would have micro-credentials and/or certificates that prepare them for the daycare setting.

Another solution included high school-aged students babysitting in order to earn money on their days off from school. Some parents at the previous forum did not like this idea. Either way, Hotz is working to provide a grant which would allow students to attend Kirkwood Community College to receive a child development associate degree which qualifies them to work in daycare.

Missed lunches

An issue brought up in board meetings and at the last forum was that some students rely on the school breakfast and lunch. Because of this, Hotz is working to reinstate the backpack program. He’ll send a survey in February to gauge who would benefit.

Lone Tree initially had this program but dropped it due to COVID-19, never bringing it back. They’ll also continue to run their food bank.

Structure

Hotz passed out a draft calendar for the four-day week using Mondays as the day off. He plans to have a Friday draft soon.

Some were concerned about consistency since some Mondays would require school while most would not. Hotz provided an answer. Some Mondays are built in snow-days which accommodate the unknown winter weather. Others follow long breaks like Thanksgiving, getting the students back in school rather than making their weekend longer. 

Hotz also passed out a draft for potential bell schedules. This included different structures for lunch, Pride – a built in study hall – and more. Also highlighted was a possible alternating block schedule which features just four classes per day.

This change would be the most ‘radical.’ However, some parents did have interest in the alternating block schedule while others expressed concerns about the students’ attention span for longer classes.

Some even supported a five-day week with the alternating block schedule. This was not an initial idea considered by Hotz or the board, but they could implement it if it gains enough attention and support from the community.

Timing

A lot of parents are concerned that Lone Tree is moving too swiftly. Hotz first introduced the four-day week in December. He recommends the board approve or deny it in February. If the board approves, Hotz recommends they chose Monday or Friday as the universal day off in March. This would be a four-month turnaround from conception to finalization (implementation to occur in the 2024-25 school year).

Teacher contracts begin on March 15. If they want a four-day week to attract/retain teachers, they need to move swiftly to finalize their schedule.

Additionally, some districts surrounding Lone Tree are moving at the same speed. For example, the Highland School District in Riverside plans to vote on a four-day school week in February. If approved, Lone Tree will compete for teachers against Highland in terms of schedules and Iowa City in terms of salaries.

Of course, many options exist. The board could table the discussion. They could approve a block schedule. They could approve a five-day, standard week. They could approve a four-day week for 2025-26 instead of 2024-25.

Big picture

Four of five school board members attended the forum. Each was an active participant.

Board member Gordon Viers introduced a new perspective to the four-day week. 

He mentioned that in his three years on the board, it’s been a struggle to hire teachers in certain fields. He said that salary is not always the issue; sometimes, there are not enough applicants. Viers thinks that making a four-day school week standard would help attract more people to the teaching field.

Basically, if Lone Tree introduced a four-day week, it might attract more applicants just because of its initial attractiveness. If most nearby districts make the same move, the initial surge of applicants would eventually wane back to normal. But, as a four-day week becomes more common, it might inspire more young people to become teachers.

This could, in theory, create a new wave of teachers, which would help Lone Tree and the country as a whole.

This philosophical perspective helped guide the forum.

Surveys to come

In the initial staff survey, 39 of 60 staff members responded, with 82.1% somewhat/strongly supporting the four-day week. There is no way to know which staff members were teachers. Parents worried that the 21 who did not answer may not support the change.

Hotz will meet with all teachers on Wednesday, Jan. 31, to discuss the calendar. He plans to provide a unanimous survey to gather their opinion on the matter.

Then, Hotz will update the community with a District Update Video which can be seen on the school’s Facebook page. It is expected the update will include the teacher survey data.

Parents also wanted another survey sent to all parents. Hotz said he would work on that as well.

Lone Tree will host at least one more forum, slated for Monday, Feb. 5, at 6:30 p.m. in the school cafeteria. Following will be the school board workshop meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 7 at 6:30 p.m. in the district office. The board will likely discuss the four-day calendar at this meeting but cannot vote on it until their regular meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 21.