HOUGHTON, Mich. - The Adams Township School District saved about $25,000 by experimenting with a four-day schedule for three months, but now students are back to a five-day school week, according to The (Houghton) Daily Mining Gazette.
The district saved nearly $13,000 in labor, $8,000 in utilities and about $4,000 in transportation costs by closing for 11 Fridays, according to The Gazette. Each school day was slightly longer under the four-day week.
Superintendent Patrick Rozich told The Gazette that the district now will evaluate the experiment, including feedback from parents as well as from some faculty who said that students didn't appear to be working as hard.
"We're going to look more into that because we weren't exactly pleased with some of the changes, especially academically," Rozich said, according to The Gazette.
Rozich is applying to the Michigan Department of Education for a waiver next year to go to a four-day week at Jeffers High School, The Gazette reported. The district is also investigating wood-burning systems as a fuel source.
"The fuel system is killing our budget," Rozich said, according to the Gazette.
SOURCE:
The (Houghton) Mining Gazette, "Four-day
week comes to an end," April 7, 2010
FURTHER READING:
Michigan Education Report, "Winter Weather Wonderland," Nov.
21, 2006
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