News OFFICIAL PARTS SUPPLIER She added that students attending four-day school weeks
are in class longer to make up the difference. Te Colorado Department of Education has an hourly requirement for school to be in session, not the number of days. “In addition to being transportation supervisor, I also drive
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School buses are thought to be seven times safer then traveling by car or truck. This theory is upheld in part by the regular inspections by maintenance providers as well
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a route. I was talking with my parents, and a lot of them didn’t realize that the school day is now a half-hour longer,” she added. Custer School District #15 in Montana also implemented a four-day week. “All our drivers have other roles in the district, such as teacher, cook, or secretary,” said Superintendent David Perkins. “Drivers get paid by the hour with a minimum of one hour per route run. Terefore, we aren’t concerned with providing a 40-hour work week. In fact, the secretary often ends up with overtime. We are also in a sports cooperative, with the other school being 23 miles away. Te responsibilities of providing transportation to practices and games are shared between our two districts. Te drivers aren’t affected very much by having Fridays off, or by the couple of five-day weeks we have on the calendar.” Tere is also evidence that, while a four-day week doesn’t immediately affect overall academic performance, there is a de- cline in achievement scores once the novelty wears off. A recent article in Te Atlantic purported that longer school days could be more tiring, especially for younger students, and teachers may be less effective at the end of a long day. Educational ex- perts like the National Education Association claim that some students won’t retain what they’ve learned over an extended weekend. Teachers say that every Monday is like the first day back from vacation, but that they also like having Fridays with no students in the classroom. Montezuma-Cortez School District RE-1 in Colorado went to a four-day week for several years, but the school adminis- tration returned to a five-day schedule about three years ago amid concerns of lost instruction time. Others, however, grew comfortable with the extra day off. “At first, the parents didn’t like the idea of a four-day week at all. Ten they got used to it, and didn’t want to go back to five days,” said Director of Transportation Lena Galloway. Her school bus drivers, especially those paid hourly and not guar- anteed health insurance, also voiced initial displeasure at seeing their wages reduced. “But then, when it was time to come back, ‘Man, we were
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enjoying our Fridays off,’” she said. Galloway could not comment on any cost savings experi- enced districtwide, but she said her department felt the positive effects of lower fuel consumption and related costs. But despite the district paying less for drivers, other transportation staff still had to report on Fridays, meaning she still needed running electricity year round as well as heat in the winter and air con- ditioning in the summer. “I had mechanics here five days a week,” she explained. “I had to be here.” ●
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