Around Town

Ernie Wren
A few weeks ago, I wrote an article on “Keeping Our Teachers” in which I shared various possible methods for retaining and recruiting our educational professionals such as increased pay, four-day work weeks, increased professional development time, and more. In this article, I shared that, “Sturgeon public schools went to the shortened week format during the 2020/2021 school year, while the Hallsville school district board voted to move to a 4-day school week for the 2022/2023 school year. Harrisburg has operated on a 4-day school week since 2012 with administrators, teachers and parents strongly in support of the new format.”
As a follow up development, this past week the Versailles, MO school district, Morgan County R-2, also voted to move to a four-day school week next year. They chose Monday as their added day off. The fact that another district relatively close to ours is going to a shorter week is pertinent to the Southern Boone School District, as these shortened work weeks are seen as a tool for recruitment and retention. With the school board election coming up on April 4th, this, along with other issues, may become a topic of discussion at forums and during campaigns. While it may or may not be a solution for Southern Boone, it will undoubtably be a topic that the board will have to address.

See more in this weeks Boone County Journal