Four-day school week is kept intact in rural Clark County

By Paul Takahashi

Thursday, Feb. 27, 2014 | 9:39 p.m.

A four-day school week for some rural Clark County students will continue until 2016.

The Clark County School Board unanimously approved on Thursday to continue a four-day school week for Goodsprings Elementary School and Sandy Valley Schools.

The rural schools are located about 50 miles southwest of Las Vegas and face unique issues. Students missed up to 26 school days in a year to travel for athletic competitions held on Friday nights and weekends.

The four-day school week eliminated Friday school days, but didn’t affect instruction time for the nearly 300 students at the schools. The school days during the rest of the week were extended so there would be no loss of class time and no loss of hours and wages for the 58 staff members at the schools.

Parent surveys found that 92 percent of respondents preferred the four-day school week, district officials said.

In addition, school attendance, test scores and discipline statistics indicate that the four-day school week has had a positive impact on the schools, officials said. Test scores and graduation rates have gone up, and the athletic team average GPA has gone from a 2.2 to a 3.5 out of a possible 4.0.

“I’m impressed,” School Board member Carolyn Edwards said, of the improvements. “This is pretty incredible.”