A 5-day post office -- what about a 4-day school week?

I've read several rural counties are switching to this due to fuel prices for buses.  It would be a longer day but I've also read that student attendance for a shorter week increases.  I'm in a rural county and some of those buses have to go waaaaay out to the county borders where there is no "bus stop."  You know, unless the bus can't make it up the mountain!

This will create daycare issues of parents with smaller children is the big problem I see.

Older kids could adjust. Where I live, they need to do things to encourage children who live within a mile of the school to actually walk to school! The high school behind my house does not even have bike racks. They went to great extremes to lock the back gate to the campus --- elementary, middle and high school are all on one campus. This back gate opens up to 2 subdivisions full of school age children. The older kids just made a path around the fence and through part of the woods. For many of these kids the walk would be less than 1/2 mile.

I walked to school when I was a kid -- I don't know, maybe less then a mile?  But I wouldn't have allowed my DD to walk to school, not today!

The 3 Elementary schools and 1 high school where we live already does a 4 day week.  They start the year off going 5 days until  about late Sept. or early Oct.  Then they go Mon.- Thurs. from 7:40 to 3:45 or 3:50.   Everybody here LOVES it because they are SMALL schools.  Maybe 4 buses. 

But where I work this would NEVER do.  We have at least 10 buses and we start serving breakfast at 7:20 to get them all in for the bell at 8:00.  If we started earlier WHEN would we start serving breakfast.  I'd be on breakfast duty at 6:30

PLUS because I work with special Ed and most of them can't go thru the breakfast line we have to be there early to get their plates fixed for them as soon as they get there.  Because we get there early we are allowed to leave early.  I get there usually around 7:30 (not set in stone) and get to leave as soon as they are all on their buses about 2:45 or3:00.  Having to stay until 3:45 would be BORING and LONG. 

For others it may work but for our school NOPE.

I let my son but I would not let a girl walk alone to school, only in a group.

 Assuming that the parents cannot get a matching 4-day work week, won't this lead to more unsupervised kids?   It seems to me that being on their own for a hour or two each afternoon is a whole different thing than being on their own for a full day each week.

Personally I would love it, but I don't have children in school anymore.  I would lose a day's pay as I am a baker at an elementary school but having a 3-day weekend would be worth it to me.

The school daycare operates from 6 AM to 6 PM.  It is no surprise to me there are parents who get off work at 4 in the afternoon have a 30 minute drive, but still don't come get their kids until 6.    It is a long day for those kids. . . .

 I don't have kids in school anymore but...it sure would have been nice!!!!  This district only does half days on Fridays anyway.. (2 bus runs 3 hours apart every Friday) my thought has been for years...(even before high fuel prices) why not take 2 Fridays off and go 2 Fridays full Day? that would cut 4 bus runs a month...They also run 2 activity bus runs a  day for middle and high school, personally I think they could do away with those too..our parents worried about picking us up or we walked...

When I was a kid if you lived within 1.5 miles of school you were considered a "walker" I never rode a school bus in my life with exception of field trips..one school was exactly 1.5 miles away.. I walked it everyday...granted times were safer then, but we were healthy kids too! 

I'd be all for a 4 day work week!! I could see where that would cause problems with the day care situation.

I was an exchange student into the US out on a rural area.  Even back then, this school only went from Mond-Thur.  They were longer days, but hey, three day weekends was worth it!  I think parent could/would adjust.  All the schools in the district would have to change to that schedual, not just one or two.  I think it would get my yes vote.

It may save the school some money but it would hurt the pockets of many, everyone who works at schools who would have to take pay cuts and the cost of day care for working parents and day cares would have to take in more children or more added. I don't like the idea of kids being left unattended for a day as I am sure there will be more than there should be as parents won't.can't  pay. Our school system now provides food during the summer for the inner city kids who need a meal --they would still have to do that for a day that school wouldn't be in session.

Plus I can't imagine how it would work with athletics as most of our varsity games are played on Fridays evenings so that parents can attend games. More weekday games=less parents coming=more parental complaints. Not to mention many of our academic challenges, theater, music etc., who have many events on Fridays. The students would still be pouring into schools that day to prepare and the schools would have to provide supervision.

They are already complaining we aren't in school enough creating low test scores academically.

Me personally, I'd love a three day weekend, but I just think there are too many obstacles, especially at inner city schools to overcome