SANTA ROSA, Texas (ValleyCentral) — The Santa Rosa Independent School District is asking the community for feedback on a change to the school week schedule.
Yolanda Chapa, the superintendent for Santa Rosa ISD, said the proposal came after a board member suggested a four-day school week.
She said the proposal calls for students to attend class Monday through Thursday and teachers to have a teacher workday on Friday.
She said the four-day school week would be good for exhausted teachers and students, and said it will help with retention.
“We don’t have teachers running to Santa Rosa saying, we want to teach because also, we cannot be competitive with our bigger districts,” she said.
Santa Rosa ISD’s population is 880 students.
Chapa said they put out a community survey for feedback before making a decision.
“We have sent out a survey to the community because the board wants to know how the community feels about this,” she said.
She explained that they have received a 37% response on the survey and 100 parents responded with “no concerns.”
She said concern from the school district’s board is childcare for the extra day off but said it is a top priority.
“We’re looking at something that’s going to be good for students. It shouldn’t just be a recreational time and what we’re looking at is the optional enrichment program on Fridays,” she said.
She said students may need to attend longer class periods in order to meet the Texas Education Agency’s standards and to preserve the quality of instruction and learning.
“We’re very diligently looking and ensuring that what we put together is something that the board can approve, and we will propose that to them, hopefully in about a week,” said Chapa.
She said if the four-day school week gets approved by the school board, the staff and community will be advised before the end of May.
If approved, the schedule change is set to take place for the upcoming school year.
