LANSING (AP) -- A northern Michigan school district is putting a new twist on the debate about how long students should be in class each year.
Atlanta Community Schools switched to a four-day school week this semester, a move initially designed to save the rural 320-student district some cash in an era of declining state aid for education. Administrators soon realized the schedule change could have benefits beyond the $25,000 that will be saved in busing and utility costs over the next few months.
Attendance has improved since the schedule switch was made in late January and administrators are hopeful academic performance will benefit as a result. Even some parents who were skeptical of the move say the early signs are promising, although they're waiting until the end of the semester to make a final judgment.
"I was dead set against it, to be honest with you," said Deb Wojtoviets, parent of an Atlanta eighth-grader. "But there was actually sound reasoning behind the idea."
The Atlanta district tacked more than an hour-and-a-half onto its Monday through Thursday schedule, and no classes are held on Fridays. The switch leaves students with the same number of hours in school as a five-day week.
The four-day school week is not unique to Atlanta, about 190 miles north of Detroit. Republic-Michigamme schools in the Upper Peninsula has used one since the 2004-05 school year.
But the schedule's effects will be watched closely by those concerned about the erosion of Michigan's school year and finances. Even as many educators argue the U.S. should be keeping students in class longer to better compete with other nations in a global economy, financial pressures have played a role in keeping Michigan's academic time requirements near the lowest in the nation.
Michigan law used to require 180 days of school, the informal national standard, with 1,098 hours of instruction. But state lawmakers dropped the day requirement and went exclusively to hours in 2003-04, allowing districts to save money with longer but fewer school days.
Many districts added a few minutes to each school day and were then able to drop entire days off their schedule. A study released last year by The Center for Michigan found that less than 2 percent of state school districts were in session for 180 days or more in the 2007-08 academic year. More than 40 percent of districts met for less than 170 days.
The report by the nonprofit organization found many districts didn't meet the 1,098 hours standard because of snow days and other class time reductions.
"The ones that have abused this in my view are the ones that have added minutes to a day to count for days," said Mike Flanagan, Michigan's superintendent of public instruction. "That doesn't pass the smell test. There's no way minutes a day are equal to whole days."
The state will take a small step toward stopping the erosion of class time next academic year by requiring a minimum 165 days of instruction for most districts. Only Hawaii, with 163 days this year, would meet for less time among states using days as a measure.
Michigan will require at least 170 days of instruction for most districts starting in 2012-13.
The Michigan Department of Education would like schools to be in session for at least 180 days. Districts counter they can't afford that because of declining state aid, which hasn't kept pace with inflation for the past several years.
"If you're asking people to work more days, you should pay them," said Dave Campbell, superintendent of Olivet schools near Lansing, which is in session for an above-average 176 days this year.
Per-pupil funding declined by a minimum of $165 per student this academic year, causing more districts to freeze wages and require employees to pay more of their health care coverage costs. The trade off in contract bargaining is often fewer days of required instruction.
Atlanta schools are now in session from 7:30 a.m. to after 4 p.m. High school and middle school students no longer get an end-of-day period to catch up on classwork, but they take electives such as mythology or current events instead. Teachers are able to spend more time on each subject and get better, more immediate feedback from students about what's being learned and what isn't.
The biggest change may be psychological. The community debate surrounding the schedule switch appears to have served as a wake-up call about the importance of education. Attendance, which sometimes had a been a problem in the middle and high school grades, has improved as students realize missing one day would set them further back in a four-day schedule than it would have during the five-day week.
District officials say they won't push for a four-day week next year unless they can prove it's helped academics at the end of this semester.
"We were hoping to really shake our community into understanding that the kids really need to be there to be taught," said Teresa Stauffer, the district's superintendent. "Our attendance has been very good since we went to the four-day. It's a whole different perspective."
The law
FOUR-DAY DEAL: Atlanta schools in northern Michigan initially looked at switching to a four-day school week for financial reasons. District officials soon discovered the move has potential to benefit academics.
HOURS NOT DAYS: Michigan is one of the few states that does not have a required number of days for schools to meet written into state law. Schools are supposed to be in session for at least 1,098 hours.
CHANGE AHEAD: Michigan will require most districts to be in session for at least 165 days next academic year and for 170 days in 2012-13, still among the lowest in the nation.
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