(Griswold) The Griswold School Board is still considering a four day week.
The most recent step in the process was to survey current staff. This was done during a staff meeting on April 5th. “The purpose of the staff meeting was to share all the research that the administration has done in terms of the four day week with our staff. Give them examples of what a school calendar may look like and what a typical day may look like, some contractual things. Allow them to ask questions. At the end we asked them to complete a survey. The biggest reason we are doing this, the only reason we are doing this, is to attract and retain staff members. If we find this is not meeting the needs of our staff, then we’re not going to do this.”
Superintendent Dave Heinrichs relays the survey results. “The survey had three options: 1) Absolutely in favor, 2) Absolutely opposed, or 3) Undecided, which may mean I need more information. The results of the survey which was shared with the board, 35 staff members were in favor, 13 opposed, and 31 undecided.”
The board then discussed how many would need to be in favor in order to go ahead with it. Not exact figure was agreed upon. They’ll continue to answer staff questions. “We believe the next step is try to provide staff with answers to their questions and that really needs to be done at the board level. Things like ‘What would a contract day look like for teachers?’ or ‘What would our practice schedule be like during the non-school day?’ We already have a work session scheduled in May. At the May board meeting we are going to pick a date in June or July to schedule another board work session and try to work through some of those questions that the staff have so it can be presented back to them at a later date to help them decide whether they are in favor or not.”
The 2023-24 school year will feature a five day school week. Any potential change would not be implemented until 2024-25.
As far as the current school year is concerned there were four snow days, one of which will need to be made up. This makes the last day of school for students May 24th.
The School Board also approved a list of 28 graduates this spring.
