Summer school changes get green light

SHAWANO — Summer school will be four days per week for the Shawano School District instead of five, once the school board votes on the matter Monday night.

Rod Watson, associate principal at Shawano Community Middle School, presented his plan to the district’s executive committee. He said he investigated the possibility of making the school week shorter without increasing the number of weeks summer school is in session.

The school day will increase slightly from 4½ hours to 5 hours every Monday through Thursday for five weeks. Breakfast and lunch will still be served five days per week.

A survey was sent out to parents, with 328 responding, and 86% favored a four-day school week, according to Watson.

“It was a pretty resounding mandate for a four-day school week,” he said.

Some parents commented that only having school Mondays through Thursdays is a good thing for those families who plan weekend trips. Watson told the committee that Friday attendance in summer school tends to drop compared with the rest of the week.

“Some commented with the four-day week that they would start using our program, when they hadn’t before,” Watson said. “It would be something less cumbersome for them.”

Parents who are also employees for summer school commented that the four-day week would cause less stress for staff.

Even with the overwhelming support, some parents commented on the survey concerns about whether free meals would be offered on Fridays, as the district has in recent years offered the lunches to all school-aged students, whether they attended summer school or not. There were also questions about whether daycare would be provided Fridays as it had been previously.

There was not as much support for the school days being an hour longer, even though it would prevent summer school from going from five weeks to six, according to Watson. About 65% of survey respondents favored a longer day.

Watson said the argument was understandable for the youngest students, as the existing schedule saw their attention waning in the last hour of the day, so he opted for an additional half-hour instead as a compromise.

“A longer day would go past what is optimal for them,” Watson said. “It would create behavior issues.”

He said the four-day week would save the district in operating costs, noting teachers would be working fewer hours under the new system.

School board member Michael Sleeper praised the plan.

“It’s a creative, proactive approach,” Sleeper said.

Scheduling aside, Watson announced he is trying to get more classes set up that utilize science, technology, engineering and mathematics, which educators refer to as STEM. Included is a weeklong camp in July involving TimberPro and other businesses, where students can learn about how they use robots to make things.

“At Hillcrest, it will be design and challenge-based,” Watson said. “At the middle school, it will be robotics-based; they’ll be building Lego robots and work with the software.”

lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com