SPOKANE — A short drive from Nixa and Ozark, the rural Spokane district was looking for a competitive edge.

The 770-student Christian County district did not have the size or resources of its larger neighbors, including Branson, and cannot pay the same salaries.

But, in transitioning to a four-day school week this fall, it was able to offer its existing and future employees an attractive perk: Three-day weekends, fewer work days overall and more family and free time.

"A lot of times in a rural district, if you are close to a Springfield ... you are competing with folks who are going to pay a higher wage," said Spokane Superintendent Della Bell-Freeman. "You've got to come up with a way to get folks to look at your district, first of all, and then to want to stay."

The Christian County district is part of a fast-growing trend in Missouri. In all, 61 districts— 11 percent of those in the state — are now operating on a four-day school week. Like almost all other districts that have made the change, Spokane students attend Tuesday through Friday.

Missouri has permitted school districts to adopt four-day weeks since 2010, starting with Lathrop. Early on, only a small number made the change each year.

Jon Turner, assistant professor of education leadership at Missouri State University, said lawmakers granted the flexibility in the middle of an economic downturn as limited state funding for education was prompting districts to make tough decisions.

"The first generation, it really was about the economy going down, the state budget was going down and the foundation formula was weak," he said.

In recent years, as Turner studied the trend, a shift became apparent. He said while the desire to cut costs continued to be a factor, many districts report they made the switch to help with recruiting and retention efforts.

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He said districts also gain flexibility in how they provide professional development and give teachers time to collaborate.

"Each one of those decisions has been made by a locally-elected school board. No one has forced them to do that," Turner said.

Three years ago, the momentum started to pick up. This year, a record 28 districts made the transition, including Spokane.

Southwest Missouri has become a hot spot for the pared-down schedule. In addition to Spokane, the following Ozarks districts embraced the option this year: Fair Grove in Greene County; Marion C. Early and Pleasant Hope in Polk County; Hickory County; Greenfield in Dade County; and Verona in Lawrence County.

Turner, who has interviewed leaders in half the districts using the truncated schedule, said once a district in one part of the state adopts the option, the neighboring districts often give it a look.

For example, Everton was the first in southwest Missouri to make the switch, prompting many others to investigate the option.

"When you look at the package of what a school district can offer, a lot of it is tied to how much revenue a district has available," he said. "The four-day school week is one of the few things they can do that is not about money."

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In Spokane, Bell-Freeman was hired in part because she had experience with a four-day week in Montgomery County, where she was the No. 2 in charge. She has been helping Spokane through the transition.

Bell-Freeman said the Spokane district will likely save a little of its $8.6 million budget by going to 148 days. However, she said the driving factor was to recruit and retain staff, and noted there are perks to the shorter week.

"You found that you had some family time on the weekend," she said. "Most of us who work a five-day week at school were spending hours over there on the weekends."

Becky Justis, assistant principal of Spokane's middle and high schools, said the shorter week helps teachers who coach and sponsor extracurricular activities.

"In a smaller district, you have more of your faculty involved in extracurricular activities and sports so when your Saturdays are taken up with a volleyball tournament or cross country meet or band competition or archery during the five-day week you just have Sunday to get yourself back together," she said.

She previously worked in Galena, which is also on a four-day school week, and notes that the shorter week helped retain staff.

"We had the Science Teacher of the Year there at Galena and he'd have schools call him and want him to come to their districts and he'd say 'Are you a four-day week?' and they'd say no so he would not even entertain their offer," Justis said.

Justis said teachers may start at a smaller district but often get lured away by higher pay or other perks.

"It's really making sure our teachers know they are very valued, very wanted and we want them to stay here," she said. "We don't want to be that stepping stone. We want our students to have that consistency and stability."

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Bell-Freeman said the schedule allows time for professional development, or training, on designated Mondays throughout the year.

"The biggest benefit from an educator's point of view is that you have those days when you are bringing your staff in and you have these large blocks of uninterrupted time," she said. "When you have it on Monday, you can give them a dose of something and the next day they can go right into it and start implementing."

Bell-Freeman said the Spokane district trimmed spending on staff in the 2019-20 budget primarily by rethinking its administrative structure. However, it has worked to protect the pay and benefits of its hourly staff.

"Some of the positions don't pay the highest wages so if you wind up cutting back on their hours, you are negatively impacting people who are really committed to your school," she said.

In Spokane, a move to a shorter week meant longer school days. The elementary is in session from 7:50 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and middle and high school start at 8 a.m. and end at 3:39 p.m.

"We recognize that the days are longer so we have been looking at what instruction looks like," she said. "Are we including movement breaks? Are we including cooperative learning? How are we pacing our curriculum? What instructional methods are we using? How are we engaging students? We are looking at all those things."

In Missouri, only small or rural districts have made the change.

Additional supports are being added. The district is gearing up to offer a snack program in partnership with the Life360 Church.

Bell-Freeman said with the shorter weeks, teachers have to more closely adhere to their curriculum to make sure all the important lessons are taught. The district must also push to make sure students are present and on time.

"You have to be very focused and very intentional about what you are doing," she said. "The message is every day matters, every minute matters."

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Four-Day Weeks

A list of the Missouri school districts currently operating under a four-day week and the year the change was adopted: