Fewer vacancies, more applicants: Iowa school districts say 4-day week already paying off

Superintendents in two central Iowa school districts says their switch to a four-day school week is already paying off — before students are even back in class.

Saydel Community School District, which has about 1,400 students in unincorporated Polk County between Ankeny and Des Moines, opted in February to change the school week to four days for the 2024-25 year, citing a desire to boost staff recruitment and retention while freeing up a day for personal business, improving wellbeing of staff and students and potentially making Saydel a destination for students through open enrollment. Martensdale-St. Marys Community School District, a rural district west of Indianola, also decided to move to a four-day week starting with the new school year.

Both district's superintendents say the change has improved staff retention and prompted more teachers to apply for open positions in their district.

Saydel Superintendent Todd Martin said teachers began cold-calling the district to ask about open positions the minute word got out that officials were considering moving to a four-day week — even before the school board took action to make it official.

"So we knew that it was piquing interest and encouraging people to looking at us and want to come and work for us," Martin said.

As Saydel moved into the hiring season, Martin said, officials noticed that fewer staff members were leaving the district, the number of applicants increased and more applicants with years of experience were interested in open positions. Last year, there were 15 vacant jobs in the elementary school; this year there were just three, including a new position.

"The reality is, it was a stark, stark difference from what we saw last year," Martin said.

More: The Saydel school district will switch to a four-day week. Here's what to know

Saydel also has seen a spike in families from outside the district who want to open enroll their students. Officials believe that's correlated with the four-day week. The district expects enrollment to go up but there won't be an official count until October.

Generally speaking, Saydel students will have Fridays off. Faculty will have about half of the Fridays off to themselves and the others for professional development.

Martin said the district is excited to see how the four-day week plays out when the new school year starts Aug. 23 and officials are working hard to make sure everything goes like clockwork. That includes offering child care to families and partnering with local organizations that could offer programming to students on their Fridays off.

Saydel also is offering shuttle buses for athletic events on Fridays.

Four-day week helps with staff recruitment in Martensdale-St. Marys

Martensdale-St. Marys Superintendent Bill Watson echoed Saydel's results. Martensdale-St. Marys moved to a four-day week mainly for teacher recruitment and retention. Historically, many faculty members left for larger districts that offered better salaries.

According to district data, there were 15 teacher departures after the 2023-23 school year. Martensdale-St. Marys made the switch, and then just four teachers left.

There had been 31 teaching vacancies over the past three years. But June 15 marked the first time the district had a full teaching staff on that date since 2020.

"The minute we transitioned and announced the four-day week, obviously it paid off from a retention standpoint," Watson said.

Watson said numbers of job applicants went through the roof. When an elementary teacher left this year, there were immediately 19 applicants for the job.

Compare that to last year, when six total applicants applied for four open elementary school positions.

Martensdale-St. Marys also added a transitional kindergarten program for the upcoming school year and saw 16 applicants for those positions.

Also, Watson said, the quality of applicants has risen. They include first-year and veteran teachers, and new hires range from newcomers to teachers with more than 20 years of experience.

"We're excited about it," Watson said. "Our teachers and our community have been really supportive of the change. Obviously, it's going to be a change, and there's going to be hiccups along the way, but we're prepared to deal with each of those as they occur."

The day off there will generally be Mondays. Teachers will have professional development on one Monday each month.

Chris Higgins covers the eastern and northern suburbs for the Register. Reach him at chiggins@registermedia.com or 515-423-5146 and follow him on Twitter @chris_higgins_ .

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Fewer vacancies, more applicants: Iowa school districts say 4-day week already paying off