Students at Ardmore Adventist Academy will skip some school this year, and it was actually the principal’s idea.
The academy has changed to a four-day school week for the 2008-09 school year in an attempt to help families save on fuel prices. Students will attend school from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday.
“One of the biggest reasons for going to a four-day school week was simply the high cost of gas to our parents,” Ardmore Adventist Academy Principal Stephen Dennis said. “This new schedule will also provide the extra time in a single day to help students finish a whole lesson. The extended day will provide the time to finish lessons and then get to class work. This way, lessons aren’t forgotten by the time students actually do the assignment.”
Dennis is in his first year as principal at Ardmore Adventist Academy. But the idea to change to a four-day school week originated with someone else.
“When I became the principal here, I looked at the schedule and realized there were a lot of hours,” he said. “In fact, there were more hours than were actually required. Our state superintendent actually mentioned the four-day cycle to me when I was visiting with him about our schedule. So I began to look at what our needs would be if we expanded from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
“I still had to work to be sure that throughout the year, we would get in the number of hours that are required, which is basically 30 hours in a week,” Dennis said.
So how do parents feel about the switch?
“When they suggested this, I told them I was fine with it as long as the students don’t have so much homework on Friday, that all they do is homework,” said Connie Hartzo, whose daughter is an eighth-grader at the academy. “If they were going to be loaded down with homework on Friday then they might as well be in school that day. At first, I thought the extended days would be very long for the kids. But after looking at the schedule and everything, it looks like they are going to have breaks, so the kids wont be wore out by four o’clock.”
Hartzo said the change will certainly help her family with fuel costs.
“The switch will definitely save us some money in gas prices,” she said. “We drive from Lone Grove and that is a pretty good drive. I think it will also help the school save on utilities.”
While rare in this area, the idea of a four-day school week is not new.
At least nine states and 108 school districts have schools that operate on a four-day school week. Typically, these programs are in small, rural school districts.
“Overall, we like the idea and we will see how it goes,” Hartzo said. “But it sounds like a good idea.”
