School Board Votes Three to Two In favor of 4-Day Week
 | Author:
Nancy Marks
Nancy Marks: MT43 News Secretary and News Editor |
School Board Votes Three to Two In favor of 4-Day Week
School District #1 Chairman Jason Noyes cast the deciding vote to pass a motion to begin negotiations implementing the 4-Day school week in Townsend Schools for the 2023-2024 school year to the applause of about 70 persons who attended the meeting.
Each school board member explained why they voted their preferences. Vanessa Flynn voted in favor of implementing the 4-Day week because she thought just four days in school would give kids time to be kids. She felt it would give the school a better chance to retain good teachers. “Each year there are 300,000 fewer people in our population under the age of 18, so we will have fewer and fewer people who become teachers. We need to give our teachers every chance we can to hold them,” she said.
Shaun Scott said he was against the 4-Day week at this point because he felt it would not serve special needs kids adequately.
Todd Olson voted in favor of the 4-Day week. Olson, who lives in northern Broadwater County, explained he is sensitive to the 52% of working families who commute to either Helena or Bozeman. “I would favor the idea if it is included as part of the package we already have in place which includes a pay raise and continuing education for teachers. It must be in a package. Negotiations with the teachers’ organizations and the board will take time, so probably could not be implemented this year,” he said.
Kevin McDonnell, who is the incumbent running for the board in the school election, said he could not responsibly vote for a 4-Day week. He said he felt there were still too many unanswered questions including the need to support all kids at all levels of learning and how much would it cost the district.
Chairman Noyes said he struggled with the decision because of the long-term effects on kids at every grade level, but he acknowledged 81 percent of the 68 teachers and staff who responded to the online survey were in favor of the 4-Day week, as were 60 percent of the 367 parents and community who responded. The survey was conducted last week by the Montana School Board Association. He pointed out our school has 80 special needs kids who do well when in five days of school. He acknowledged daycare is a huge concern in Townsend and he wondered where the budget could be stretched to accommodate more services on Friday. “After hearing speakers tonight, however, I must vote in favor of the motion to begin negotiations for the 4-Day week,” he said.
Several Townsend School teachers and administrators spoke as did members of the public, both for and against the motion. Chase Ragen, who is running for the school board, suggested the board table the motion for three weeks until the newly elected board members could be part of the decision. Andrea Rice, also vying for a seat on the board, said the decision should not be based on research statistics, and that the board is not seeing the forest for the trees. “Please listen to the teachers, they are the ones who bridge the gap between learning and our children,” she said.
John Bleile, a parent with kids in school, was emotional when he suggested the board had not heard the teachers, and that teachers were not included in formulating the survey. “You are equating qualified educators who teach our kids with babysitters. They are not babysitters,” he said.
Roger Flynn echoed Bleile’s point. “Why even do the survey if you do not listen to the respondents’ choices?” he asked.
