Sweet Home back in school on Fridays
Sweet Home schools will return to a five-day school week in 2017-18 — a welcome development for classified employees in the district.
Members of Sweet Home Chapter 3 have been delivering the message that “School Cuts Hurt Sweet Home” ever since the district opted for a shorter school week during a budget crunch.
The school board’s unanimous vote to switch back came in part due to increasingly unfavorable test scores when compared with the rest of the state. While test scores had lagged only slightly behind the state average prior to the shortened school week, 2015’s results were sobering: The achievement gap had grown dramatically, doubling at the elementary and high school levels.
For school employees — particularly those whose daily hours fall below the minimum to receive full health insurance — the change meant paychecks sometimes dropped below $100 for a month of work after paying 25 percent of the insurance premium.
“That should be nobody, in my opinion,” Chapter President Velma Canfield said. She was on the committee that recommended returning to a full school week. “Having a fifth day would allow those who are paying 25 percent of the cap to still have a paycheck.”
School employees expressed grave concern about students’ well-being when the Friday instructional day was eliminated, and with good reason: Sweet Home’s student homelessness rate of 10.35 percent is among the highest in the state. Canfield said some students were showing up on non-instructional days just to hang out and stay warm during winter months.
Referencing Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs — which identifies basic necessities for food, water and shelter as a must-have before other goals can be met — Canfield said adding the extra instructional day is a no-brainer.
“We all know that on the matrix, until basic needs are met, learning doesn’t happen. This will provide one more breakfast, one more lunch, transportation to the Boys and Girls Club for one more day per week,” Canfield said.
On the district’s Facebook page, Superintendent Tom Yahraes said the change would add 20 or more school days each year.
“In that fifth day, we will provide and students will benefit from opportunities to build character, teach values, cultivate talents, inspire dreams and instill purpose,” Yahraes said in the statement.
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