By Casey Jarmes | The News-Review
KEOTA – In February, 2024, the Keota School Board approved switching to a four-day school week during the 2025/2026 school year. Since October, Keota has only had school Monday through Thursday. Six months into the new school schedule, things are going great at Keota. The News-Review spoke with nine students, three teachers, and Superintendent and High School Principal Lisa Brenneman, all of whom had nothing but praise for the four-day week.
“I think it’s been going good,” said senior Jace Chalupa. “We’re getting all our work in. I think we’re getting the same amount of knowledge built. We’re learning the same amount. We’re getting extra time, on weekends, to do our own thing.
“I personally love it, because on Fridays, when it’s nice out, I can go out and golf and enjoy the nice day, instead of sitting inside,” said senior Izzi Chalupa.
“I think it’s a morale boost,” said junior David Sherman.
“Especially when you have to go four days and just know the week’s shorter than it was before,” said freshman Tyson Osweiler.
“The weeks go by a lot shorter and the weekends are way longer. Gives you a lot more time,” said freshman Aubrey Galindo.
“It’s just pretty nice,” said senior Pierce Bimson.”
“I don’t think there’s one (student) that doesn’t (like the five day week),” said Brenneman.
“I think it has been excellent,” said AG teacher Zach Jamison. “I think that it’s went well. I think that, overall, everyone is enjoying it. I’ve heard no negatives.
“As a teacher, it does give me some extra time with the students, and so I do feel like I’m able to get my full lesson done in a day, which has been helpful,” said junior high math teacher Elizabeth Overtuff. “I do think it also helps because students know that they have Friday off, they’re more likely to be at school during the week and focusses. So that has been helpful.”
“The students really seem to love it,” said high school Math teacher Katie Kaplan. “I love it, when it is a four-day, when we don’t have PD and I get that Friday off, that’s really great. And I think it’s been going really well with our classes. I was a little worried, losing so many days, but it seems to be going well, and we seem to be getting through all the material that we need.”
Brenneman explained that the district will not have state test scores until the end of the year, but that she expects them to be positive. She stated that pacing tests show that some students are a little behind last year and some are a little ahead. Most of the staff and students who spoke to the News-Review stated the four-day week had either been neutral or positive, in terms of academics.
“I think (academics have) improved. Students are more locked in on four-days,” said Osweiler.
“You have less days to work, so you’re not as tired, so you work pretty good the whole time,” said Aubrey Galindo.
“I think it’s very convenient, if you’re taking online classes, especially for upperclassmen, so you can have a day to get stuff done,” said Izzi Chalupa. “I think that it’s helping me, academically, because I have more time to study.”
“Me too,” said senior Niveah Gutierrez. “With my college classes, the Fridays allow me more time to get stuff done.”
“I have a pretty easy schedule, so it doesn’t really matter whether we have a five-day or four-day, but either way, I’m going to get my stuff done,” said Swanson.
“It just makes you look forward to school going fast again, and then having a longer weekend, you feel more fresh when you come to school…It doesn’t feel like you’re wasting a lot of time in the week,” said senior Ashton Galindo.
“It feels like it’s kind of easier to get a lot of assignments done, because you’ve got more time at home,” said Bimson. “You’ve got more free time, generally.”
“I would honestly say it’s roughly about the same,” said Overtuff. “Really, the way students perform academically, at this level, really comes up to them. So they want to put in the work, they do the work, and we’re able to get it done. I do believe, though, that there are some students that struggle, since we are able to get things done in one class period, it’s a little bit more of a faster pace than they might be used to. So that has been taking some time for some students to get through. There are students that are struggling, but we are finding ways to try and correct that or help them through that.”
“I think they’ve been doing about the same,” said Kaplan. “We’ll really find out when we get our ISAB test scores, to see what those look like, but overall, as a whole, I think it’s about the same.”
“I’d say it’s improved. With that morale, you know, they’re more positive about being here,” said Jamison. “They get their work done. They know they have an extra day off, so you know just keep moving and those sorts of things, and then the extra day of rest and relaxation has been helpful.”
“We do have to push, really hard, Monday through Thursday,” said Brenneman. “Fridays were kind of not as focussed as other days of the week, so I think that’s why it’s working now.”
Several of her students noted that the four-day week works well with the schedule for the Keokuk County Career Academy in Sigourney, where they take classes.
“Academy is pretty good, you can go over to Sigourney for academy, you only have to go to academy on Fridays, you don’t have school right after, so you’re tired from welding or anything like that, you can go to rest,” said Sherman.
“Me and (Jace Chalupa), we do career code in the morning, so we’re already on a five day schedule no matter what in the mornings, but having the opportunity to leave class in the morning, and then go straight to work on a Friday, so I don’t have to just eat lunch and go to work, not having to come here makes it good,” said Ashton Galindo.
Brenneman noted that there were difficulties with making sure the school’s new schedule still allowed students to attend practices at Sigourney, with which Keota shares multiple sports. Several students noted how beneficial having the four-day week was for athletics.
“I think it’s easier to get practices in on Fidays now,” said Izzi Chalupa.
“That’s very true, because I have work on Fridays, in the morning, and then, instead of having practice for golf at four o’clock, when everybody else is, we have it at like one o’clock, so then everybody can have their practices,” said Swanson.
“I feel like it’s boosted our football program immensely, because we have a Friday game night, and having that whole day off to prepare is a lot better than getting yourself mentally tired due to tests and other things,” said Sherman.
The four-day week also gives more time for professional development, something multiple teachers were fond of. “Us teachers having the every-other week half-day professional development also gives us a lot of time to work in our classrooms and work on our own stuff, which is nice,” said Overtuff.
“The PD is what I like about it,” said Brenneman. “The four-day week, great for the kids, great for the teachers, for the most part, but every other Friday, they have a morning of PD. And, you know, when you’re in a small school and have as many preps as they have, it’s hard for me to ever work with a teacher on improving their practice. This way, with the four-day week, we can do it together, collectively as a group, set goals, learn together, move forward, and it gives us that time. And I think our staff has become much more close on those PD Fridays…There’s just a lot of things we can get done with the teachers that they are applying directly to the classroom.”
“I do believe that it has been helpful, because we do get that time to collaborate with other teachers at the same grade level or in the same department,” said Overtuff. “We’ve had more time to talk through some of the things that we have to discuss, like consolidation of sections or work. So we’ve had that time to work on it. This year, we have been focussing a lot on making sure we’re using the time we do have wisely.”
“When we have PD, it’s a nice time for all of us to get together and be able to collaboratively work together and get to bounce ideas off each other,” said Kaplan.
Also noted by several students was the ability to spend time working the four-day week provided. “Oh, it’s amazing,” said Sherman. “Boosting my check, more hours.”
“Fridays, I babysit, so that’s the day I make money too,” said Aubrey Galindo.
“So for me, I do half my day at Kirkwood, then my other half, coming here, then going straight to work,” said Ashton Galindo. “So, on Fridays, when I have no school here, I can go straight for my classes at Kirkwood and then go straight to work. So, it makes having work here way easier and getting way more hours in.”
“The other advantage to a four-day is that we’ve started a lot more work-based-learning, so kids are able to have a lot more time to go to those jobs and job shadow, because we now require job shadowing, and the Fridays are a perfect day for them to go job shadow,” said Brenneman.
For many of the students and staff members, the change to a new schedule went without many problems. “I can’t say there were a lot of problems. It was pretty much an easy move,” said Brenneman.
“No, there hasn’t been nothing at all,” said Ashton Galindo. “It’s just more positive to me.”
“It transitioned pretty smooth,” said Bimson.
“I am a really good planner, organizer, so I really didn’t have any difficulties. I was able to plan out all my classes for the year, make sure I was able to get everything covered that I need to, and it’s been working so far,” said Kaplan.
“It was definitely different, but I don’t think anyone really struggled,” said Gutierrez. “It was a positive change.”
“It was like a relief when we got into the days when we didn’t have to go to school on Fridays,” said Izzi Chalupa.
“Most people were here at eight o’clock anyways, so it’s not much different,” said Sherman.
“At first, the days felt a little bit longer, but I got used to it really quick. It’s definitely worth it,” said Aubrey Galindo.
“There is that challenge of trying to get the same year’s worth of material in less days of school,” said Overtuff. “I had to go through my curriculum and determine how much time I need to spend on each of these, are there sections that maybe I could teach differently, to condense it down so that I can get through all the material in a year, because we do have fewer face to face days. So that has been a challenge. We’ve taken a lot of time at the end of last year and beginning of this year to work on that as well. I think that’s been helpful. But, it’s the first year doing it, so I think there’s still going to be a lot of work to do in the next couple years.”
“We’ve had to reevaluate and structure our classes,” said Jamison. “I haven’t run into any problems with that. I’ve been able to adjust and accommodate. Most of my classes are still running on schedule, if not ahead, so things in that regard are doing fine…It took a little time to adjust, but once things got running smooth, I didn’t really notice a difference.”
Several students pointed out that the new schedule helped with making up snow days, gave time to get their licenses at the courthouse, and allowed them to go to doctor’s appointments without missing school. Brenneman noted benefits the school has seen in terms of attendance and behavior.
“We don’t have a lot of behavioral problems at all anymore,” said Brenneman. “I can’t say it’s because of the four-day week, but I just think kids know that Thursday comes and goes pretty quick. It really does make a difference. They know that they just have to work really hard for four days, they get three days off, it seems to be working well for them…Plus, kids aren’t missing as much school. Our biggest hope was that the absenteeism would improve, and it has. The chronic absenteeism law that was passed helped, but we just see less absences because they have that three day weekend…Some people were concerned about having kids out and about on Fridays, you know, not in school, and I have not received any complaints or heard anything negative about that…Some of our parents, that were hesitant about it, have actually let me know that it’s one of the best things we’ve done.”
Every single person the News-Review spoke to agreed that this was a possitive change. “Most definitely,” said Swanson. All of them stated they hoped Keota would stick with the four-day week.
“I honestly haven’t received anything negative about it. Not nothing,” said Brenneman.
“I like it,” said Jace Chalupa. “I encourage every other school to do it.”
“Everything from it has been a benefit for me,” said Ashton Galindo. “Nothing negative.”
“Usually, you walk in Monday, no one likes a Monday, now you walk in, it feels like a Tuesday,” said Sherman. “So everything’s a little bit better that way.”
“It’s been nice to have more time at home with my son,” said Kaplan.
“I mean, as with any sort of big change, there are some bumps along the way, and as long as we get through those, I think it’ll be good,” said Overtuff. “I think the students do enjoy it. I get a lot of good feedback from them. It’s just all those little behind the scenes things that still need to be worked out a little bit.”
“I can’t say that it would work out for every school, but it definitely works for Keota, a small school,” said Brenneman.
