Late last week, Collinsville Independent School District (CISD) announced it will be moving to a four-day school week in the 2025-2026 school year. This decision, which came after several months of discussion and research, was essentially chosen to boost teacher efficacy and increase teacher recruitment and retention.
“I travel the elementary and secondary school halls at 7:20 most mornings. I see students working with teachers, students completing IXL extra practice, getting help with math and reading tutorials, having UIL practice, and teachers monitoring students in the hallways, gyms and cafeteria,” CISD Superintendent Matthew Davenport said. “I routinely visit the campuses again at 4 p.m. On most days, I see teachers still working away, again doing tutorials with students, UIL practice, grading papers or planning for the next day. From 7:20 a.m.-4 p.m. teachers have a 45-minute conference. During that time, teachers are expected to grade papers, contact parents, have meetings and plan for lessons. This isn’t enough time, and many teachers are taking work home with them after school or on the weekends…By decreasing the school week to four days, teachers will now have the time and opportunity to lesson plan more effectively.”
In moving to a four-day school week, students will attend class Monday through Thursday with all Fridays off. The school day will last from 7:38 a.m. to 4 p.m. with doors opening at 7:15 a.m. (Bus arrivals will remain the same.) The first day of school will be Aug. 4, 2025 and the school year will conclude the last Thursday before Memorial Day or the week directly following Memorial Day, depending on bad weather make-up days.
Teachers will work in the school buildings one Friday a month. Nearly 20% of CISD students receive special services that require district staff to hold annual meetings for each student. Currently these meetings are held during the school day, causing teachers in these meetings to lose quality time with their students. These meetings are being scheduled (as much as possible) to take place on Fridays when staff is in the building so teachers and students can spend more instruction time together during the week.
Additionally, Saturday school (held for students who need to make up time due to attendance or complete missing assignments) will also be moved to Fridays that staff members are in the school building.
Initial discussions to consider a possible transition to a four-day school week began last November with a District Planning Committee consisting of teachers, principals and department leaders. The committee discussed the pros and cons of such a move and reviewed STAAR test scores from eight other districts who had implemented a four-day school week during the 2023-2024 school year.
On Nov. 22, 2024, the district emailed a survey to parents seeking feedback about the possibility of a four-day school week and gauging support.
“We sent emails to over 600 addresses with the survey embedded in the body of the email as well as direct links to the survey,” Davenport said. “We wanted to get as much participation as possible.”
The responses were overwhelming, with 74% of parents responding in favor of the four-day school week and just 26% responding against.
Parents were also given five different options for the school year’s start and end dates, daily start and end times as well as how many school days would be required for each option. The majority of responders, 55.6%, opted for the shorter number of days with a 7:35 a.m.-3:53 p.m. start/end time with 152 days in the school year. Because of the way the 2025-2026 calendar fell, there will be 151 school days requiring a slightly later release at the end of each day.
Some may wonder how a four-day school week will affect parents who work outside the home. According to the CISD survey, 84% of respondents weren’t worried about finding alternative childcare for Fridays.
“Some districts offer childcare options for those non-school days, but when we asked our CISD families, there didn’t seem to be much concern,” Davenport said.
On Jan. 27, 2025, the CISD school board unanimously approved the 2025-2026 academic calendar for a four-day school week.
Collinsville is the latest district in the area to join the abbreviated school week trend. S&S CISD made the switch for the 2024-2025 school year giving students Fridays off, and Tioga ISD moved to a shortened school week in the 2022-2023 school year with Mondays off.
“An Aug. 5, 2023 article by The Economic Times titled ‘Monday is not the least productive workday; then what is?’ states that Friday afternoon represents the lowest point of worker productivity. I believe this study to be true,” Davenport said. “During my 22-year career, I would agree that Fridays are the least productive of the week. Going four days a week instead of five will equate to 24 fewer school days during the school year. There’s no room for unproductive days, so we must eliminate the least productive day from the school week. It seems in the students’ academic best interest to make Friday the non-school day.”
Choosing to keep students in school on Mondays has other advantages as well. With most junior high sporting events taking place on Mondays, students will be able to go straight from school to the games.
“We were fearful that having Mondays off would decrease the number of junior high athletes attending their athletic events,” Davenport said.
Also, Fridays after a junior high game are not typical practice days for junior high football. Therefore, parents won’t have to bring players to practice on a non-school day. For Collinsville high school students, many late-night Thursday athletics events (like sub-varsity football games, track meets and powerlifting meets) bring fatigue into the classroom on Fridays. This can be avoided by using Fridays as the non-school day.
To ensure that student athletes are maximizing instruction time in the classroom, the 2025-2026 school year will see a schedule adjustment. A 25-minute study hall period that currently takes place earlier in the day will be moved to the end of the day. If athletes need to leave early for a long-distance event, no academic classes will be missed.
Tasked with the academic achievement of 609 students, the move to a four-day school week is something the district has not taken lightly.
“This is change, and change can cause nervousness,” Davenport said of the schedule shift. “We want to do what’s best for our kids academically. There’s no real data yet on the effects of a four-day school week. We’re hoping it’s a positive change.”
Despite switching to a four-day school week, students are still required to be in school for 75,600 minutes. Since this amount of time won’t change from this year to next, school personnel’s annual salary will not be affected by the shortened week.
“At CISD, we’re proud of our small class sizes which allow teachers to have more autonomy. However, smaller class sizes prevent our district from being competitive with salaries that larger districts can offer,” Davenport said. “A first-year teacher in Collinsville will make $45,500 annually while a first-year teacher in the Metroplex will make near or above $60,000. While we can’t offer this at CISD, we can offer a four-day work week.”
The CISD 2025-2026 academic calendar can be found on the CISD website (www.collinsvilleisd.org). As questions arise and changes are made, the district will make information available to CISD families.
Source: Freepik.com