Southern Boone school district leaders say they're considering switching to a four-day school week starting in the 2026-2027 academic year. It's an effort, they say, an effort to increase recruitment and retention of teachers while also hoping to boost student engagement.
“It can be challenging to recruit and retain (teachers) from a financial aspect just because these school districts are much larger. They have a larger tax base and their salaries as well,” said Matt Sharp, Southern Boone's public relations director.
The district sent out surveys about the potential change to teachers, parents and community members. Sharp said they have already received a lot of insightful feedback. District officials plan to hold community forums in the coming months while the school board makes its decision.
If Southern Boone makes the change to four-day weeks, it will join the more than a third of public schools in Missouri.
Because almost half of Missouri public school funding comes from property taxes and other local levies, smaller districts have a difficult time matching salaries for other districts.
Todd Fuller is the director of communications for the Missouri State Teachers Association. He said he has seen firsthand the difference in disinterest in smaller districts at teaching conventions.
“You would see the Southern Boone table would have their administrator there, and they may have four or five people in line,” Fuller said. “And then you'd see the Columbia table, or the Fulton table, and the Columbia is able to have 50 to 60 people in line interested to talk.”
Because there is a large tax gap, smaller districts are using four-day weeks as an added benefit. Wisdom, superintendent of the New Bloomfield school district, says they have had teachers return to the district because of the change.
In 2024 Missouri raised its starting teacher pay to $40,000 from $25,000. This does not close the retention gap for districts, because there are more opportunities for raises in larger districts such as those in Columbia and Jefferson City.
According to the Missouri National Education Association, the starting salary for teachers with a bachelor's degree in the Columbia school district is $43,000 and the highest is $83,205. In the Southern Boone district, the starting salary is similar: $40,000. But the highest-paid teacher with a bachelor’s degree makes significantly less than in Columbia Public Schools: $62,825.
While the school weeks are shorter, students still receive the same amount of instructional hours, whether it's longer school days or extended school years. Districts must maintain 1,044 hours of instructional time, according to the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
Jon Turner is a retired administrator and associate professor at Missouri State University whose area of research is four-day school weeks; he says many districts offer childcare on the fifth day.
“One of the things that's really sort of interesting about it, most school districts, when they transition to a four-day week, they go to great lengths to provide some kind of childcare option.” Said Turner.
Southern Boone currently partners with the Southern Boone Area YMCA to provide before- and after-school care. Sharp said more conversations about all-day care will continue with the organizations if they make the transition to four-day weeks.
The New Bloomfield school district offers a remediation program to students who qualify and need some extra help on the fifth day. New Bloomfield Superintendent Sarah Wisdom said the "Monday Academy" shows students growth because they are able to hone in on students in small groups.
“The goal is to get those kids; it's like 96 hours of remediation on specific goals,” said Wisdom. “So how we run it is each kid has a goal for each year, and once they master that and they maintain that grade level of reading, then they can graduate out of Monday Academy.”
