Argonia School District moving to 4-day week

ARGONIA, Kan. (KWCH) - Starting this fall, Argonia Schools will move to four days a week. The Tuesday-Friday schedule has been in the works by this district for more than a year and a half.

Seeing other districts in its sports league with a four-day-a-week schedule first sparked conversations about the change, but those discussions picked up last fall after seeing a sizable drop in enrollment and fewer students entering the elementary level.

This district has spent much of the past year adjusting its schedule and curriculum to prepare for the change. Each school day will be about 25 minutes longer.

Superintendent Doctor Rustin Clark said other districts have seen two main benefits: teacher retention and increased enrollment of students.

“If parents want to choose a small, rural school, there’s lots of really good quality small rural schools in our area, and we’re one of those but we’re just one of those. We wanted to have something that would be attractive to give parents one more choice,” said Dr. Clark.

The district and parents said the response to the new schedule has been overwhelmingly positive. The main concern now is childcare.

“Parents are struggling to find babysitters cause there’s not a whole lot of daycares in town,” said Kayla Stringer, a parent, a mother of two who plans on having her oldest child start preschool in the fall.

Dr. Clark said the district will provide childcare for school-aged children on Mondays.

Last school year, 25 Kansas school districts were on a four-day-a-week schedule, many of which are small, rural school districts.

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