Texas school district moves to four-day week

A rural Texas school district is moving to a four-day workweek this fall to cope with an ongoing teacher shortage.

The Jasper Independent School District, located in East Texas near the Louisiana state line, said in a March 16 Facebook post that its board of trustees approved the change amid “a nationwide teacher shortage” after conducting surveys with parents, teachers and staff.

The district said 64% of parents and staff favored a four-day week in its first online survey. In the second survey sent only to teachers, 84% of respondents favored it.

According to the Facebook post, the 2022-2023 calendar will extend the school year but not the school day to still include the state’s required 75,600 minutes and five bonus schools of student instructional time.

The district has two elementary schools, one junior high and one high school.

The board has also voted to give teachers $3,000 and all other staff $1,500 in “retention incentives,” each to be paid in three installments.