North Texas School District Considering Switch to 4-Day Week

You know the kids are just going to hate this. I kid, of course.

I often give my kids a hard time about them not getting the full summer off as I did back when I was in school. But admittedly, they get a lot more days off during the school year than I did when I was growing up. So, there’s that.

But I would’ve gladly traded a few days of summer vacation for a 4-day school week back in the day. And some Texas schools have made the switch.

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While a 4-day school week is the exception rather than the rule, some smaller school districts have made the switch out of necessity due to being short-staffed. And now a Dallas suburb is looking at doing the same thing.

Fox 4 News reports Mesquite ISD is planning to vote to move to a 4-day school week by March 6, at the latest. Just like the rural school districts that have made the switch, Mesquite ISD is struggling with an extreme teacher shortage:

Mesquite ISD is working to address the struggle we are facing in an extreme teacher shortage and the resulting impacts on students, including unfilled teaching positions, hiring a large number of non-certified teachers, larger class sizes, less teacher planning time, etc.

The only problem I can see with moving to a 4-day week is that it would possibly put working parents with young children in a bind, forcing them to pay for daycare. For our family it was a huge relief to no longer have to pay for daycare when our kids started school.

Hopefully, there’s a plan in place to address the issue.