The Ponder Independent School District in Denton County announced that it will implement a four-day instructional week, beginning during the 2025-2026 school year.
The district cited a number of benefits of the new schedule, including “improved teacher recruitment and retention, increased student engagement, and enhanced work-life balance for both staff and students.”
“Additionally, studies on four-day school weeks suggest potential advantages in attendance, discipline, and overall school satisfaction,” the district said in a news release.
Although not specifically mentioned, financial considerations may also have influenced the decision.
“A lot of rural schools are going to this model I think it is saving the district money,” said Dr. Chris Sloan, associate dean of the College of Education at Tarleton State University, per Fox 4 KDFW. “Less utilities with buildings closed. They don’t run the buses one day.”
The Ponder ISD academic school year will begin on August 6 with the traditional five-day-per-week schedule for the first nine weeks. Then, beginning in October, the school will shift to a Monday through Thursday schedule, extending each day by 30 minutes. This schedule will allow the district to meet the state’s requirement of 75,600 instructional minutes per year.
The district plans to provide childcare options on Fridays for students in grades K-5th grade. In a survey of families with children in the district, the four-day school week received overwhelming support, KERA reported.
Superintendent James Hill believes the four-day-per-week schedule will also be popular with teachers, who will be able to attend to personal business on Fridays. It may help decrease the district’s teacher attrition rate. Hill said that he has already been getting calls from teachers seeking employment after hearing about the four-day-per-week schedule.
The Ponder ISD school board approved the four-day school week for three years, and it will then reevaluate the revised school calendar based on teacher and student performance.
“The way we approached this when we started planning is that, if we lose academic growth for the students, if we aren’t seeing performance improve or at least stay the same, we’ll end it,” Hill said, per KERA. “We’ll go back to five days. But my research is telling me that the districts that do this — They see student growth.”
Other independent school districts in North Texas that have switched to a four-day educational week in recent years include Sanger, Anna, Mineral Wells, Montague, and Terrell, according to Fox 4.