Davis County disappointed at councils decision

Davis+County+disappointed+at+councils+decision
Two years ago in 2019, during the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic, Davis County switched to online school.
When it was time for us to return to school (2020-2021) Davis County decided to switch to 4-day school week to reduce the spread of covid-19.
Now that we have started our 2021-2022 school year the school board made a decision, that left a lot of people disappointed. We would be returning to a 5-day school week
“I loved the 4-day school week. It gave me more time to catch up on grades and, in turn I had more time to help my students.” After interviewing multiple teachers, most of them agreed with or had similar opinions.
Why did Davis County make this decision? Instead of having Fridays off we have a late-start day on Wednesday. The council decided that students were not using Fridays for getting help with work. People wondered if this claim was true and a study was conducted on students and teachers at Davis High and surrounding High schools. 85% of them said that they would use Fridays to get caught up in classes when they needed it, and Teacher’s helped students get caught up.
Not all the time did students need/want help. In other instances, some teachers would take the day off because they didn’t have to be there. More dedicated teachers would take this day to grade work and work on lesson plans. While also helping students.
This can show that the council, while trying to make the best decision, already had a confirmation bias of high school students. When also looking at the results of the study there was a noticeable trend. When asked “How well would you say the 5-day benefit you?” The answers were all very split 50% said 10/10 and 50% said 1/10. 1 being not beneficial, and 10 being the most beneficial.
When looking at the results of the question,” How well would you say the 4-day school week benefited you?” 100% of people said 10/10.
“Having a 4-day school was very beneficial for my mental health, I got to work on myself and work.”
82% of students and teachers said that school had affected their mental health. The next trend we can see is on the question, “Would you say the 4-day, or 5-day school week is more beneficial for your personal mental health?” In response 75% of participants said the 4-day school/work week was better for their mental health.
“I’d say it was super beneficial specifically to kids who struggled in school. With 4 days more would come during the school week, and on the Fridays to get help form me.”
Overall, 80% of participants prefer the 4-day work/school week or the 5-day work/school week.
From 2015-2019 the Association for Sustainable Democracy and Autonomy conducted a study in two large-scale trials of 2,500 participants, in Iceland. They found that a 4-day work week, without any type of pay cut, improved worker’s mental health and productivity.
Worker wellbeing dramatically increased across a range of indicators, from perceived stress and burnout to health and work-life balance.”
A long-time myth that constantly pushes back the idea of changing to a 4-day work week is that productivity will decrease, and nothing will get done. As proved in the study done in Iceland this is the exact opposite of what happens. Workers have a better work/life balance and therefore increased productivity and overall morale.
560 districts and 25 states in the USA have allowed at least one school to adopt the 4-day school week. A lot of places in the US have one big setback, to why not all schools haven’t integrated. It seems like a flawless plan, right?
It has been brought to people’s attention that changing to a 4-day work week could do more damage than good to lower income families. Not all families have stay at home parents and can pay for day care centers. Also, a lot of low-income students rely on school for half of their daily meals.
The Center on Reinventing Public Education has said that while moving to a 4-day school week can be beneficial in some situations, to low-income places it can make things worse.
In conclusion, at schools in Davis County, the 4-day school week has been very beneficial to its students and teachers. When looking at the evidence, it’s shown to be very morale boosting and overall improved positivity in Davis County.