Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
PORTALES — Come next school year, Portales Municipal Schools students will again have a case of the Mondays.
The board, after significant pushback from citizens who attended Monday's special board meeting, voted 4-0 to keep in place the calendar it recently approved with a five-day school week. Superintendent Johnnie Cain had put forward a four-day school week that would, like the current pandemic-impacted year, designate Mondays as off days for all district schools.
The News attended the one-hour meeting virtually.
Cain, who was San Jon superintendent before coming to Portales, said he has seen districts do well in the four-day week and that larger schools like Aztec and Socorro are looking into the shift. He said the intent would be to continue with a five-day school week in 2022-23, but that the district could weigh a shift based on how this year goes.
Cain said having a four-day week would create an easier transition should hybrid schooling (two days on campus, two days virtual, one day for campus cleaning) be the norm again.
“I just don't know that this thing (COVID-19) is over yet,” Cain said.
Sidney and Pamela Shuler, seated with their two young daughters and a mountain of activity books to keep them occupied, spoke of the numerous challenges continuing a four-day school week would have on kids and parents.
While Sidney Shuler said he appreciated the leadership in challenging times, he requested any vote on a four-day week be tabled.
“I'm not arguing for a four- or five-day school week,” Sidney Shuler said. “I'm asking for time to perform due diligence. Teachers, parents, community members and students need to be considered and feel like they have some level of control.”
Pamela Shuler followed up with a series of questions she felt needed to be answered, including published research about the benefits of four-day school weeks, assurances the calendar would only be for 2021-22, impacts on time for homework and extracurricular activities and the realization that as people get back to work they can't stay at home on Mondays and supervise their children.
She added many instructors don't feel comfortable sharing negative opinions, and felt such a change would create a leadership conflict between a state government trying to open fully by the end of June and a school district using pandemic concerns two months later to justify a four-day school week.
Kay Jilek, who spent 40 years in education, said much of the data around four-day school weeks centers on smaller schools, and Portales needs to have data from schools of its size. She also felt that extending the length of the four days to meet hours requirements would have diminishing returns.
“When you extend the length of the class, there is a lot of wasted time,” Jilek said. “You get maximum production at about 50 or 55 minutes; anything after that is wasted time.”
Board members noted they needed to decide quickly because the budget was set to come before the board in its regular May 10 meeting.
Sidney Shuler said the administration should at least provide a week's worth of research for the community. He did concede having a four-day school week was a good thing to have in the back pocket, but, “as of now, our governor is making it unnecessary.”
Board members, whether they were swayed by the crowd or had those ideas entering the meeting, sided with the community members.
Board member Randy Rankin, president of the New Mexico Baptist Children's Home, said he would not support a four-day week because he sees how difficult it is to supervise and care for kids on one weekday, and he has staff that an average family doesn't.
“Not everybody has good options to watch kids while they are at work,” said board member Antonio Sanchez, who moved to keep the five-day week in place.