Kingsville ISD switched to a shortened school week this year. Here's how it's going.

Two months into the second semester of the year, Kingsville ISD teachers and students have had the chance to get used to only attending school for four days a week.

This fall, the district adopted a shortened school week. Students are only required to attend school Monday through Thursday. But key to the calendar are voluntary half-days when students are invited to come to school for intervention and enrichment.

On Fridays, staff work half the day in the morning. Some Fridays are dedicated to professional development and training, others are teacher workdays.

There are 18 “Bright Brahma Friday” intervention and enrichment days in the 2023-34 calendar. These Friday programs are voluntary for students.

They are an opportunity to complete make-up work and for students who are struggling to receive tutoring. The schools also offer additional fun activities, making time for clubs to meet or for students to connect with teachers. The schools also sometimes invite guest speakers on Bright Brahma Fridays.

So far, it isn't just the students in need of extra tutoring who have taken advantage of the Friday half-days.

“The kids are allowed to be creative and just truly be who they are,” H.M. King High School assistant principal Jeremy Torres said.

Looking ahead to next year, the district is planning on keeping both the shortened school week and Bright Brahma Fridays.

The Kingsville ISD Board of Trustees is expected to consider next year’s calendar on Tuesday evening.  The district’s executive instructional committee has proposed two calendar options, both of which keep the four-day school week and additional Friday intervention and enrichment programs.

The changes in the calendar options include a few tweaks, such as implementing a regular order for the flow of professional development, teacher workdays and intervention and enrichment Friday half days and incorporating more time for teachers to meet with professional learning communities on Friday mornings.

Potential impacts of the shortened school week

The district won’t know the full range of impacts the calendar has had on students until the school year is complete, but staff have already noticed some changes.

Superintendent Cissy Reynolds-Perez said that attendance rates from the fall semester were better than in previous years. Attendance is an important metric for public schools because in Texas state funding is distributed based on average daily attendance.

“It’s improved with a 2 to 3% increase in average daily attendance,” Reynolds-Perez said.

Attendance is also up for teachers and staff, she added, decreasing the need for substitutes across the district.

“In math, our teachers are indicating that our students are further ahead than they were last year, however, we won’t know more until the end of the year,” Reynolds-Perez said.

In a small rural district like Kingsville ISD, many students and teachers were often pulled away from the classroom on Fridays in previous years to attend athletic events and other extracurricular activities. That increased the need for substitutes.

That isn’t a problem this year because there is no school on Friday. Even though it isn’t a normal school day, students are still able to participate in those same activities, with games and competitions still scheduled on Fridays.

Kingsville ISD is one of the first districts in the Coastal Bend to try out a shortened school week, but across the country four-day school weeks are a growing trend.

In Missouri, more than 30% of districts in the state have adopted a four-day calendar. The Missouri State Board of Education released a report on the impact of four-day school weeks on academic achievement and growth in February. This report found that the four-day school week was neither helpful nor harmful for academic achievement in Missouri schools.

A 2021 study of 12 states looking primarily at rural districts only found statistically significant negative impacts in districts where students spent the least amount of time in school.

Texas requires schools to be open for a minimum of 75.600 minutes each year. This year’s calendar in Kingsville ISD included 76,000 minutes.

Bright Brahma Fridays

On the voluntary Friday half-days, anywhere from a third to half of students attend, depending on the campus.

Students who don’t attend instead pick up shifts at part-time jobs on Fridays, Reynolds-Perez said, or spend time with their families.

Students can come and go for all or part of the intervention time, which typically wraps up around noon depending on the campus. Students who attend receive breakfast and lunch, as well as transportation to and from campus if they attend the whole day.

During the last intervention Friday, Feb. 9, visitors from Texas A&M University-Kingsville showed off drones at Harrel Elementary School.

At Gillett Middle School, typical activities include yoga, chess club, cooking club and anime club. Student athletes often have practices.

One of the groups that meets regularly is a club for young boys to help them navigate middle school. In February, coaches spoke to a group of students about the importance of being polite and taught them how to tie a tie.

Tanya Williams is principal at Gillett Middle School. She’s worked at Kingsville ISD for 10 years.

“I was a little hesitant at first to see how it was going to work – I guess it was a fear of the unknown,” Williams said. “This isn’t anything that we’ve implemented prior to this. But it has worked out very well.”

Attendance is up on her campus, Williams said. On Fridays, teachers can offer non-traditional activities they wouldn’t otherwise be able to implement and students have the chance to catch up on academics.

Tomasita Trevino is principal at Harvey Elementary School. During past Fridays, visitors from Coastal Bend College came to Harvey to talk about career paths and cowboys from King Ranch came to talk about cowboy life.

“It’s fun, but still educational to keep that love of learning in the kids,” Trevino said. “Not just the constant paper-pencil, computer learning.”

Outside of the district, community organizations have also stepped up to provide places for children to go on Fridays when there is no school, including in the afternoons after an enrichment and intervention Friday half day.

Transportation is provided to take children to the Boys and Girls Club of Kingsville, Kingsville Boxing Club, Kingsway Church and the Douglass Youth Center.

On Feb. 9, Kingsville Parks and Recreation hosted a fishing program in the afternoon, teaching children about water and boat safety, knot-tying and how to cast. In addition to fishing, the children also played mini golf and did an art activity.

“Some of the concerns were, ‘Will there be enough childcare?’” Reynolds-Perez said. “Well, we were able to care of that with all the community partnerships that we formed.”

At the high school level, the voluntary Fridays include extra band practices and club meetings. The school also offers preparation for Texas Success Initiative Assessment, a college readiness assessment.

The Fridays are an opportunity to catch up if students are behind, to get ahead on studying and homework or simply to hang out and connect with other students and teachers.

One of the places students also congregate at H.M. King High School is Jennifer Bowyer art classroom. She sometimes sees students who aren’t in any of her classes.

On Feb. 9, students in Bowyer’s classroom on voluntary Friday said they accepted the four-day school week. They come to have something to do or because they prefer the low-pressure learning environment.

Bowyer puts out coloring books and gives students a chance to try out art supplies.

“Some of them haven’t had any art classes since elementary, but of course they love the coloring and to be with other people that are also artists,” Bowyer said. “Some students have their own sketchbooks, and they sketch on a daily basis.”

Reflecting on Kingsville ISD’s first year with a shortened school week

The Caller-Times visited Gillett Middle School and Harvey Middle School during a Friday half day on Jan. 12, as well as H.M. King High School during Friday, Feb. 9., speaking with dozens of teachers and students across the district who expressed satisfaction with the calendar.

Cindy Sanchez and Roberta Bliss, both sixth grade English teachers at Gillett Middle School, said that they love the new calendar.

When the idea was first proposed, Sanchez didn’t support it, she said. She was concerned about longer school days and whether students would come on intervention Fridays. But after the first few weeks of the school year, she was convinced.

The intervention Fridays are at a slower pace, Sanchez said, with opportunities to work one-on-one with students.

“The Fridays are nice because the kids actually want to come,” Bliss said. “They don’t have to come on these days, they want to come.”

In addition to academic intervention, Sanchez leads students in yoga. Bliss has a Nintendo Switch club. For these “innovation station” activities, students in any grade can attend and interact.

During the normal school week, the longer day is worth it because the half days on Friday makes up for it, Bliss and Sanchez said.

To make up for the missing Fridays, the district slightly lengthened the school day to keep the number of instructional hours consistent.

If a student has a doctor’s appointment, they don’t necessarily need to miss school, Reynolds-Perez said. Instead, families can schedule necessary appointments on Fridays.

Similarly, teachers and staff can schedule appointments for Friday afternoons, allowing them to save their time off for other purposes. The calendar also includes five Friday “wellness days” when teachers do not have to work.

Cory Scarborough is a science teacher at H.M. King High School. On Friday, Feb. 9, students gathered in his classroom to play video games and socialize.

“Some (students) take advantage of it in the fact that they have extra time to relax at home,” Scarborough said. “And others take advantage of it by coming in to socialize with their friends that they might not be able to do normally. Maybe they’ll even catch up on work.”

Having most Fridays off is positive for the students, algebra teacher Rayton Kamhuka said.

“It gives them a rest from the push that we have for the four days Monday through Thursday,” Kamhuka said. “It gives them a little bit of a rest to recover and then on Monday, I think they’re a little bit more refreshed.”

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This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Kingsville ISD midway through first year with four-day calendar