MANSFIELD, Ark.—
Mansfield School Superintendent Jim Hattabaugh says many parents and students are happily adjusting to the district's four-day week. However, some tell 5NEWS they're having a more difficult time.After the school was declared in fiscal distress last April, officials at Mansfield chose to try the four-day week along with other changes in an attempt to cut costs. School days are a fourth longer, and the school is closed on Mondays.
Alex Cunningham, an eighth-grade student, says the shorter evenings are also forcing him to better manage his time.
"The homework has been an issue," he says. "Between football and homework I barely have any time at home, you know... I go home, eat supper, do homework and go to bed, seems like."
Another group that's seeing an effect of the four-day week is local daycares, which have seen their numbers drop by half in some cases because kids are being let out around the same time parents are coming home from work.
"It's pretty much cut out all of the before and after-school care," says Francie Cunningham, Alex's mom and the owner of Sandy's Daycare in Huntington. She says she's also not the only parent worried about the changes.
"There's a lot that are having problems with it," she says. "The younger ones, from what I'm hearing from most of the parents, is their kids are just wiped out when they get home. There's not a lot of family time."
But Superintendent Hattabaugh says those parents haven't said anything to him, and students he spoke to were excited about the different schedule. Other parents 5NEWS spoke with said their evenings are actually calmer, because the children aren't bounced from school to daycare and back home all in one evening.
Several committees are monitoring how the four-day week affects the community, as well as kids' progress in the classroom. But whether these concerns are just growing pains, or cause for alarm, remains to be seen.
"I think it'd be easier to go back to the way it was," says Alex. "So far I'm kind of liking it, but it's not my favorite."
