Baldwin to consider four-day school week

MILLEDGEVILLE — One member of the Baldwin County Board of Education plans to move forward with a proposal for a four-day school week for the district.

Ray Markwalter, the vice chairman of the board, first proposed that school officials consider adopting a four-day school week during its Feb. 8 work session. During Monday’s work session, he plans to bring the idea back to the table so the board can take a vote on the matter at its meeting Tuesday. At least three of the board’s five members must be in favor of the plan for it to pass.

“I think I’ve got enough votes that it’ll go through,” Markwalter said.

The idea of the four-day school week first caught the attention of Markwalter during the Georgia School Boards Association conference in December after listening to Peach County Superintendent Susan Clark present her school system’s results. He followed up with a meeting with representatives from the Peach County Board of Education about their four-day school week and presented his findings to the Baldwin school board.

Other school board members could not be reached for comment.

Markwalter said the drop in disciplinary incidents, as well as fewer teacher absences, were among the appealing aspects of adopting a four-day school week.

He also said measures would be put in place to account for after-school programs and feeding services for eligible children.

“There are more plusses than I see minuses,” he said.

Right now, school officials in Baldwin County are in the early stages of considering the implications of a four-day school week in the district, said Superintendent Geneva Braziel, who leads about 5,400 students in the district.

One of the first steps will be to form a committee to research how a modified calendar would impact Baldwin County’s budget, as well as its effects in other areas.

“One of the biggest things we’re looking at is how it’ll impact student achievement,” Braziel said last week. “We’ve made a lot of progress, and one thing we’re looking at is student achievement and performance. When we make decisions, they need to be centered around how they’ll impact students.”

Braziel would also like to analyze the results of other schools who have adopted the four-day week such as Peach County, as well as other districts who have been using it longer.

“We need to look long term at what the results are going to be,” Braziel said.

To contact Andrea Castillo, call 256-9751.