Gladewater ISD holds town hall to consider four-day school week

Ashlyn Anderson
·2 min read

GLADEWATER, Texas (KETK) — Gladewater ISD held a town hall meeting on Wednesday to discuss moving to a four-day week.

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Students in nearly 30 East Texas schools’ districts attend school four days a week. Gladewater ISD is considering joining the list and heard from families at their town hall meeting.

Superintendent Sedric Clark wanted parents to voice their concerns before the board votes April 22 at 6pm.

“Our District Educational Improvement Committee makes a recommendation on the calendar to our board issue. Last year, when they made the recommendation, they also asked for us to consider a four day school week this year,” Clark said.

A few months ago, a survey was given to parents and out of the nearly 600 responses results showed two thirds of parents support a four-day school week.

“Hopefully some of them will be here tonight to voice their concerns. The board wants to get every bit information that they can to make the best decision that they can,” Clark said.

A four day school week would add nearly 40 extra minutes of learning each day.

Among the crowd, Melissa Higgins, spoke and said her children are already hungry after they get off the bus, adding a longer school day could make it worse.

“Could there be an option for adding snacks? There is nothing from 10:30 a.m. to when they get home now at 4:30 p.m.,” Higgins said.

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An even greater concern from ​Higgins and other parents are the effects towards the attention span of the younger children and those with special needs.

“What happens when you add more time? There’s not more medicine you can give, the answer can’t be for us as parents to give more medicine,” said Higgins.

One thing everyone can agree on is that the students’ needs come first starting with quality teachers in the classroom.

“It doesn’t negatively impact student learning. It positively impacts culture, it positively impacts morale of adults, teachers and students based on the research that we found,” Clark said.

The town hall raised questions to parents if the Monday deadline is too soon to make a decision.

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