Listen to the full interview with Cynthia Grant, interim superintendent of the Independence School District (8:00):
Independence and Hallsville voters have spoken. They want their school district to continue to hold classes four days a week.
On Tuesday, more than 61% of those who voted in Independence chose to back the shortened week.
In central Missouri’s Hallsville, voters overwhelmingly approved keeping a four-day school week.
Cynthia Grant, the interim superintendent of the Independence School District, thanked the community for voting in Tuesday’s election.
“We are excited to move forward. We know that nothing is perfect – five day week wasn’t perfect, four day week isn’t perfect,” Grant told Missourinet.
A new state law requires larger districts, of at least 30,000 residents, to ask voters whether the districts should operate four days a week.
“I would have to say I felt pretty confident going in (to Tuesday’s election), had a lot of great feedback from our community. However, there’s always the voice in the back of your mind what ifs and that’s kind of where we were going into it,” said Grant.
The district, which has about 13,500 students, is the largest Missouri school district operating four days a week.
Grant said the district has improved in a number of ways as a result of the shortened week over the past two years.
“Some of the benefits that we have seen is our retention data with our teachers. Prior to the four-day instructional week, we were sitting right around between 80-88%. Now this past year, going into this school year, we were at 90.8%, as well as our APR scores have increased 10% over the last four years,” Grant said.
Prior to holding classes four days a week, teachers joining the district had an average of 4.4 years of experience. Now, they bring an average of 8.5 years.
As for attendance, Grant said it has remained consistent.
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