Think that ISD approved the 4-day school week for next year

The Ponder ISD School Board recently voted unanimously for a four-day school week in 2025-26. Superintendent James Hill said that the vote had already ringed the phone with good news: Teachers on the job hunt ask if there are open positions.

Hill said that the district only had a handful of calls from teachers who were looking for work last year. Since the vote, however, Hill said that the district had become about 30.

A number of public school systems in Texas has dropped to a four -day working week in recent years, including Sanger ISD, which approved the change last year.

The reasons are economical. Instead of increasing the basic allocation that pays 6,165 US dollars per student, the legislators have decided to do lessons during the last legislative period about educational paragraphs, which were usually referred to as vouchers. The six -year school financing was provided by inflation, which financed hundreds of school districts in Texas their schools to deficit budgets.

The legislators of the state also passed a budget that did not provide the teachers in 2023, although the legislator discussed the meeting and the current payment of the teacher. With increasing housing costs and increasing food prices, teachers in Texas have recorded their financial loss of security. Many teachers cannot afford an apartment in the districts they serve.

For smaller districts such as Ponder, this was a recipe for the teacher flight and a growing drying magic, since administrators want to replace the retired teachers and younger teachers who were lured into larger districts with better payment. In Ponder, the school district is the city's largest employer.

“Our wear rate has been too high in recent years,” said Hill. “We lose teachers. We are dealing with two things. First, there are much fewer teachers in the candidate pool across the country, including Texas. And two, we are a very small school district in the middle of three very large ones, which you pay much better than we can. In the past two years in which I have been here, our wear rate has been one of the worst in the region. I do not agree because our children don't get the training they need. “

“So we pay other 3As very competitive, right? Since we are surrounded by these other districts, I could live in Ponder and drive 15 minutes and earn $ 10,000 more, ”said Hill. “Argyle, Denton and Northwest pay about 10,000 US dollars more. Actually it was $ 15,000 when I arrived here, and we collected it. “

The Ponder School Authority has worked to make the district more attractive and approved a general board of $ 4,500 for Raise Hill, for which Hill Lobb is involved.

Elected managers and considerations are preparing for growth. The district is currently a 3A district, which means that the only high school of the district is enrolled up to 544 students. There is a middle school, but the growth is already evident in primary school, which now has kindergartens by third graders in a building, as well as in another fourth and fifth grader in what the district calls on the campus of the lower and upper primary school.

Ponder ISD spent the last year to study a four -day week that would last from Monday to Thursday. They gathered stakeholders and finally shared a survey with families with children in the district who showed overwhelming support. The district is planning childcare opportunities for working families who need childcare on Fridays, although other districts who have said goodbye to a four -day week of school have asked for the preparation of the four -day schedule after the demand for district care.

With the apartment developments on the way, ISD officials are prepared for an increase in students. Most of Hill's career was spent in fast -growing districts, so he took over the top position at Ponder, which is willing to lead the rural district into a expected population boom. He worked in Lewisville ISD when it grew and was director of the Argyle High School for three years. Then he took the Executive Director of Human Resources Post at Frisco ISD.

He came about a year ago to think about ISD and immediately saw that the plans of the district to pay themselves. The district opened a brand new high school, especially in August, and Hill is still proud of the state-of-the-art auditorium with its professional fly system and the industry lights and audiocabin-because this means that the district will soon open its first musical.

The change in a four -day week will come into force at the end of October. The district is planning longer school days to reach the state-owned 75,600 lessons per school year, and the typical bad weather days are planned for Friday after Nordexas has released its last cold snap. Hill said the four-day school week means that the students should expect strict classes without much downtime, and parents should expect teachers to stay in their work longer and use planning and cooperation.

The board approved a four -day school week for three school years. Campus executives monitor the performance of the students and teachers and then re -evaluate the calendar. Hill said he expects the teachers to maintain the schedule because they will be able to take care of personal business on a weekday.

“The way we approached it when we started planning is that we will end it if we do not lose performance with the planning or at least remain the same if we do not improve or at least Stay the same, “said Hill. “We will return to five days. But my research tell me that the districts that do this – see the growth of the students. “