Why the Independence School Board wants voters to keep the four-day school week
Two years into a four-day school week system in the Independence School District, the ISD school board hopes voters will opt to keep the change in place.
Independence schools have been operating on a four-day week since the 2023-2024 school year. At the time, the Independence School Board described the switch as “an innovative strategy to attract and retain high-quality teachers in the midst of a nationwide teacher shortage.”
ISD was the largest school district in Missouri to move to a four-day week at the time, but it’s far from an outlier. About a quarter of school districts in Missouri ran on a four-day week by the 2023-2024 school year, according to research from Missouri State University, though the move is more common in smaller or rural districts.
The Associated Press found in 2023 that more than 900 school districts nationwide had made the switch, a 38% increase from 2019. Along with Missouri, four-day school weeks are particularly popular in Colorado, Iowa, Oklahoma and other large western and Midwestern states.
This week, the board approved the release of a note to members of the ISD community endorsing the four-day week.
“Is four-day perfect? Absolutely not,” Independence School Board treasurer Denise Fears said at a Tuesday night board meeting. “There are challenges. Child care for working parents, fatigue for students, food insecurity, to name a few… But we must continue to look for ways to ensure every learner succeeds, as our mission states, regardless of the number of days a week we offer school.”
The four-day week initiative didn’t have an expiration date at first. However, the Missouri General Assembly adopted legislation last year requiring districts with four-day school week calendars to be put to a district vote every 10 years in cities with populations over 30,000.
The legislation kicks in during the 2026-2027 school year and is up for its first vote in Independence during the upcoming Nov. 4 general election. If district residents vote to uphold the four-day school weeks, November’s vote will be the first of potentially several renewal votes in the decades to come.
Many of the faculty members directly affected by the vote, however, won’t get a say. The board noted Tuesday night that 46% of ISD teachers and staff live outside of the district.
Retention, recruitment, assessment
In the board’s note endorsing the continued four-day week, Interim ISD Superintendent Cindy Grant wrote that the district has seen “strong support for the transition” from both faculty and families.
Grant said at Tuesday’s board meeting that test scores around the district have improved in the past two years, which she attributed in part to the condensed schedule – and to the pool of experienced educators she said the four-day week attracts.
“ISD has shown improved APR (Annual Performance Report) scores, consistent academic growth and stronger teacher retention since implementing the four-day week,” Grant said.
“Early results indicate a positive trajectory for student learning.”
Since the four-day week was adopted, ISD’s teacher retention rate has increased consistently, Grant said at the most recent school board meeting. The district retained about 90% of its staff last year, Grant said, and has continued to attract more experienced teachers.
“The nation is facing a shortage of classroom teachers,” Grant said. “Many teachers are leaving their classrooms and fewer candidates are entering the teacher pipeline.”
During the 2022-2023 school year – the last time ISD ran on a five-day week – about 88% of teachers returned, according to the board. The previous year, about 81% of teachers returned.
“I know there are some that would disagree, but I truly felt that the board tried to explore the benefits and drawbacks of this calendar method before we voted to implement,” Fears said.
Before the four-day week was implemented, new teachers at ISD had an average of 4.4 years of prior teaching experience, Grant said. This year, new hires have had an average of 8.5 years of experience, nearly double the length of time previously spent in the field.
Shorter instructional weeks, however, aren’t the only incentive potentially bringing new talent to the district. ISD implemented a sick-day buyout procedure last year, board member Brandi Pruente said Tuesday, allowing teachers to directly recoup wages for some unused sick days.
“Anecdotally, I have many friends who decided to stick around for another year because it was a nice paycheck that they were now going to get,” Pruente said. “...I think next year we’ll adjust for that and so our retention rate won’t be quite as high.”
Proceeding with caution
Board Vice President Anthony Mondaine said Tuesday that he feels it’s “important and prudent” for the board to be “unified” in publicly promoting the four-day school week.
However, Pruente said that support for the condensed schedule is far from universal. As a parent in 2022, she said, she didn’t feel fully engaged in the decision process to cut Mondays from the district schedule.
Pruente also said she doesn’t feel the new schedule has been running long enough to establish a strong link between a four-day week and student test scores. Full student score data has only been made available from the first year of the new schedule, Pruente said.
“We have not, in my thoughts, had a proper amount of time to evaluate its effectiveness,” Pruente said. “There are many factors that contribute to student success and it’s really difficult to put that on the four-day when we only have one year of data on it.”
The board is also presenting the four-day school week as an issue of local control — an ongoing tension between state lawmakers and larger cities in Missouri — suggesting the state is overstepping by requiring a public vote. The news release urges district families and residents to vote yes so that the ISD can retain the power to “decide for itself” whether the compressed schedule is effective.
Missouri law allows the district to use public communication channels, including direct distribution to parents and families, to send the release. District funds will pay for its distribution.
