What’s New?

• BRYLEE CLAYTON

The Yorktown News-View would like to welcome our newest column writer, Brylee Clayton. Brylee is a junior at Yorktown High School and will be contributing to the paper on a regular basis.

We felt it would be interesting and fun to get a young person’s input on what is important to them. Her introductory column explores the 4 day school week that is of importance in our town at this time.

Enjoy! The newest talk in our small, rural town is a 4-day school week, but is this really the best route for guardians, students, and faculty? Statistics show that more than 70 schools in the state of Texas have moved to a 4-day school week. There are lots of benefits and drawbacks that come with a 4-day school week that many people are unaware about.

If Yorktown High school switches to a 4-day school week, they will save about $250,000- $380,000 yearly. This money can be used to upgrade school facilities, such as a new AG building or new electronic devices. This money can also help increase the salary of the teachers. Increasing the pay can potentially attract new educators to the school district. Many teachers work 10 months straight without any breaks. Their weekends are spent planning their curriculum. Having a 4-day school week, teachers can enjoy the weekend and use the additional day to do school work that needs to get done. The 4-day week can also increase many different rates, such as attendance and educational attentiveness. Students can schedule their appointments for the day off and students’ educational factors can also increase because teachers can properly plan out their lessons instead of assigning unplanned assignments when they are overloaded with work.

On the other hand, there are a lot of cons that come with this new policy. Texas schools are required to be open for a minimum of 75,600 minutes per school year. There is a possibility that the school days could be longer or shorter breaks. Yorktown is considering school starting 6-7 days earlier and the potential time for the school day would be 7:40 a.m. - 3:45 p.m. Many parents that work will have to find somewhere for their children to go, however, to solve that issue there are many high school students that are looking for a way to make money or even earn community service hours. Responsible students who are available on the “off” day can watch the unattended children.

As a 16-year-old still in highschool I believe that this new school week can be very beneficial for our district. Everyone needs a break at times. Children especially need a break from school. Speaking for myself, school can be an overload. Secondary students hardly ever get a break with the abundance of games and practices. I frequently miss school for appointments; with this extra day I can get all my appointments in and won’t have to worry about my attendance rate. Although there are a few cons to this possible new regulation, there are solutions to those. Yorktown High School will soon release whether or not this decision will be implemented.