Pollard

Pollard

EXETER — Something apparently triggered a rumor that Wyoming Area School District is switching to a four-day school week. It’s not true.

Superintendent Jon Pollard gave a possible explanation for the rumor Wednesday. Breaking a long tradition of setting the first day of school after Labor Day, the board approved a 2024-25 calendar with Aug. 26 as the first day. But this made the last day June 3, 2025, a Tuesday, which Pollard conceded is “awkward,” especially since the last day is typically a half-day.

So in January the board voted to make Jan. 27 and Feb. 3, 2025, days off, bumping the last day of school to June 6, a Friday. This means that students will have five consecutive four-day weeks beginning with Jan. 20 off for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The district typically gives students the day after the Super Bowl off, which in 2025 will be Feb. 10, and President’s Day, which will be Feb. 17.

The change does present the district with a small taste of how a four-day week might work, but that was not the reason to add two Mondays with no classes, Pollard said.

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Pollard didn’t suggest it, but the rumor may also have been fueled by a new law Gov. Shapiro signed in December, HB 1507 of 2023. The state has long required schools to have a minimum number of classroom days and a minimum number of hours per year: 180 days in all cases, with 900 hours for elementary grades and 990 hours at the secondary (high school) level.

In a world where students may also be taking college courses, career training courses or online sessions, this mandate has increasingly been seen as too rigid. The new law keeps the minimum number of days and hours, but changes it to an either/or requirement. Schools will be able to have 180 days with shorter hours or fewer days with longer hours.

But as Pollard pointed out when asked about possible changes under the law, districts are not likely to consider making any moves until the state Department of Education comes out with specific guidance on how it can be implemented (and what restrictions may be applied).

Reach Mark Guydish at 570-991-6112 or on Twitter @TLMarkGuydish