Coatesville School District Ponders Four-Day School Weeks
COATESVILLE, Pa. (CBS) - A four-day school week? One Chester County school district is pondering that radical schedule change in the name of economy.
To put this in perspective, there are about 14,000 school districts nationwide. Little more than a hundred of them have a four-day school week.
Coatesville would be the first around here, if the board approves it as option 40 of a 40-option list of changes to address pending cuts in state funding.
District spokeswoman Kathy Feeney says there would be 154 days of classroom instruction instead of the current 180, but the total number of instructional hours would be the same.
"At the secondary level, the students would go to school for an additional 45 minutes, and at the elementrary, they'd go for an additional 90 minutes," she explains.
The change would save about $1.7 million, according to school officials, and is part of a plan that could lower the number of anticipated teacher layoffs, which now stands at 54.
Of course all this depends on how the budget in Harrisburg plays out.
Reported by David Madden, KYW Newsradio 1060
