BILL ANALYSIS
AB 691
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 22, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Julia Brownley, Chair
AB 691 (Gilmore) - As Amended: March 26, 2009
SUBJECT : Four-Day School Week
SUMMARY : Authorizes the Alpaugh Unified School District,
beginning in the 2010-11 fiscal year, to operate one or more
schools in the school district on a four-day school week if the
district complies with the instructional time requirements and
other requirements for operating a four-day school week. Finds
and declares that the enactment of special law is necessary due
to the unique circumstances applicable to the Alpaugh Unified
School District.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires schools to provide for an instructional program five
days per week and for attendance-counting purposes, defines a
school month as 20 days or four weeks of five days each,
including legal holidays but excluding weekend makeup classes.
2)Authorizes the following school districts to operate a
four-day school week:
a) Pacific Unified School District (Monterey County);
b) Leggett Valley Unified School District (Mendocino
County);
c) Reeds Creek Elementary School District (Tehama County);
d) Borrego Springs Unified School District (San Diego
County);
e) Julian Union High School District (San Diego County);
f) Warner Unified School District (San Diego County); and,
g) Potter Valley Community Unified School District (PVCUSD)
(Mendocino County) (until January 1, 2015).
3)Authorized Jamul-Dulzura Union Elementary School District (San
Diego County) and Marysville Joint Unified School District
(Yolo County), from January 1, 2004 to July 1, 2006, and
authorized Death Valley Unified School District (Inyo County),
until July 1, 2008, to operate a four-day school week.
4)Provides that participating school districts may only operate
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four-day school weeks if they reach mutual agreement to the
operation in a memorandum of understanding with their
collective bargaining units.
5)Requires a school site council to be involved in the planning
and evaluation of a four-day school week.
6)Requires a school district to consider the impact of the
longer school-day on primary grade pupils, and the impact of
the four-day school week on working parents who may be
required to arrange for additional childcare services.
7)Requires a participating school district to provide on an
annual basis not less than 560 hours of instructional time for
kindergarten, not less than 700 hours for grades 1, 2, and 3,
and not less than 845 hours for grades 4 through 12.
Prohibits a school day from exceeding eight hours and a school
week from being less than four days.
8)Specifies that a school district operating in a four-day week
cannot receive longer day and year incentive funding if the
instructional offering of the school district is not at least
180 days in length and provides the minimum instructional
minutes required by existing statute.
9)Provides that if the Borrego Springs Unified School District,
Julian Union High School District, Warner Unified School
District, Death Valley Unified School District, Jamul-Dulzura
Union Elementary School District, Marysville Joint Unified
School District, and PVCUSD do not meet their Academic
Performance Index (API) growth targets, the authority to
operate a four-day school week shall be permanently revoked.
10)For PVCUSD, authorizes the Superintendent of Public
Instruction (SPI) to waive minimum time and
five-consecutive-day program operating requirements for
preschools, before and after school programs, independent
study programs, child nutrition and food service programs,
community day schools, regional occupational centers or
programs, and continuation high schools that operate on a
four-day school week.
11)Specifies that if the PVCUSD operates one or more schools on
a four-day school week, the school district shall submit a
report to the California Department of Education (CDE), the
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Senate Committee on Education and the Assembly Committee on
Education on January 15, 2014.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : Prior to 1983, school districts were required to
operate schools for five days and 175 days per year. The
Hughes-Hart Educational Reform Act of 1983 (SB 813, Chapter 498,
Statutes of 1983) offered incentive funding for districts to
offer 180 days of instruction each year. Current law authorizes
seven districts to operate on a four-day school week. According
to CDE, only two districts, Pacific Unified School District
(Monterey County) and Leggett Valley Unified School District
(Mendocino County), operate on a four-day school week schedule,
mainly due to extreme weather or geographic conditions. Pacific
Unified's school year is 148 days and Leggett Valley operates
between 142 and 166 days depending on the grade level. The
other districts, despite having received authorization, have
chosen to continue operating on a five-day school week schedule.
In the past, this Committee has applied the following criteria
to school districts seeking approval for this option:
Experiences extremes of climate and geography.
Serves a widely dispersed population requiring long travel
times for significant number of students in the school
district.
Demonstrates the expected benefits to the school(s) and
students of operating on shorter school week and instructional
year.
Has considered and addressed concerns about possible negative
consequences of a longer school day and shorter week on
employees, students and families.
Is held to the requirements of existing law governing those
school districts already operating schools on a four-day week.
Alpaugh Unified School District (AUSD) . This bill authorizes
the AUSD to operate on a four-day school week schedule.
According to the district, Alpaugh, an agricultural community
with a population of approximately 800, is located in the
now-dry Tulare Lake Basin situated between Interstate 5 and Hwy
99, roughly 55 miles northwest of Bakersfield and 50 miles
southwest of Visalia. The district has an enrollment of 350
students, 90% of whom are Latino and 60% of whom are English
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Learners. AUSD does not have geographical or weather challenges
that prior districts that received authorization have.
AUSD offers the following explanations for seeking a four-day
school week authorization:
1)Teacher recruitment and retention . According to the district,
teacher recruitment and retention is a challenge. The
district employs 22 teachers who live in nearby towns between
20 to 60 miles away. In 2005-06, the teacher turnover rate
was 70% over a year's time, due to mid-year departures,
resignations, and non re-elects. The four-day school week
will reduce staff travel time by 20%, result in less fuel
expenses and wear and tear on their vehicles, lower insurance
rates, while reducing greenhouse gasses and mitigating ongoing
pollution. The district also believes a four-day school week
will attract teachers to work in the district. Since January,
the district hired five new teachers who cited the potential
of a four-day school week as a reason for their interest in
teaching in AUSD.
2)Reduce staff and pupil absences . The district believes a
four-day school week will result in a decrease in staff and
pupil absenteeism, which would reduce expenses for substitute
teachers and increase average daily attendance between 2-3%.
3)Student preference . The districts surveyed students and found
that they prefer a four-day schedule, which would enable them
to complete school assignments, time to have a job to support
their families, time to spend with their parents and siblings,
and an additional day to participate in other educational
activities such as college or career technical education.
4)Fiscal solution . Any savings generated from lower utility
bills, staff efficiency, and the reallocation of resources is
applied directly to the current and looming funding
shortfalls. The financial savings have the potential to help
offset the ongoing deficit the district currently face, and
help provide financial stability.
Effects of a four-day school week . The Christian Science
Monitor reported in March 2004 on the use of four-day school
weeks in other states. The key points from the article are
summarized below:
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1)Mostly rural school systems are experimenting with the shorter
week, finding that lengthening the school day by an hour or
more and knocking off Monday or Friday saves money on things
like transportation and heating.
2)While monetary savings may result from reducing the school
week by one day, there are other costs associated with a
four-day week, including longer, possibly more tiring days in
class, and difficulty finding day care during the "off " day
for children whose parents work outside the home.
3)Reviews of the program are mixed and research is scanty on
whether cost savings are significant and if students suffer
academically.
4)Both student and teacher attendance seems to be higher when on
a four-day week schedule.
5)One superintendent is quoted as saying, "In order to make the
economics work it's really necessary that you be a widely
disbursed operation with extreme climate swings, so that
closing a building down for a day means something."
The Fall 2007 issue of the Rural Educator, a publication of the
National Rural Education Association, contained an article
summarizing reports and studies on four-day school week
schedules and found that a four-day school week schedule:
1)can result in energy savings, less gasoline and bus
maintenance, less food service costs, and salary savings from
a reduced need for classified employees and substitute
teachers;
2)has not resulted in lower student scores for the districts
examined, except that scores in one middle school in New
Mexico did decline and the superintendent advocated a return
to the five-day school week schedule;
3)has increased student attendance ranging from 2% to 5.8%; and,
4)can lead to less teacher absenteeism -- teachers like the
shorter schedule because it provides time to make medical or
dental appointments and more time to prepare lessons plans.
The article also reported that 42% of primary grade students in
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Idaho reported that they got tired and that the day was too long
and 41% of parents were concerned that their children were more
fatigued, but only 24% of teachers believed that student and
teacher fatigue were greater.
This bill, like other four-day school week bills, raises
important questions regarding the purpose for authorizing
four-day school week schedules. Should the Legislature limit
such authorizations to districts experiencing extreme climate
and geographical conditions? Are fiscal conditions or other
motivations such as teacher recruitment and retention good
policy reasons for eliminating one school day per week? In
order to meet minimum instructional time requirements, districts
operating a four-day school week schedule would have to lengthen
instructional time in a day. What are the effects of a longer
school day on pupils, teachers and parents? Would students
learn just as much with one extra hour per day for four days
versus a regular school day during the fifth day? What are the
impacts on pupils, teachers and parents on the day school is
closed? Do parents have child care for the day school is out?
Is providing an opportunity for students to work a good policy
reason to reduce the school week by one day?
Committee amendments . It is unclear from the drafting of this
bill whether it intends to subject AUSD to the same conditions
and requirements as that imposed to the last school district
that received the authorization, PVCUSD in 2008. If the
committee chooses to pass this bill, staff recommends mirroring
all or most of the language in AB 1889 (Berg), Chapter 661,
Statutes of 2008 in this bill, which include the following
provisions:
1)Provisions specifying that if the school operating a four-day
school week fails to achieve its API growth target, then the
authority to operate a four-day school week shall be revoked
commencing the following school year. The author expresses
concerns with this provision only because the district is a
small district and any absences during a test could have a
negative impact on its API. To address this concern while
still providing a means to measure the effect of the four-day
school week, staff recommends that for any school less than 99
pupils, the authority to operate a four-day school week is
revoke if the school fails to meet the API growth target for
two consecutive years.
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2)Provisions specifying that if the school district fails to
provide 180 days of instruction, the SPI shall reduce the
amount of funding for the longer day longer school year
program.
3)Impose a sunset of five years.
4)Require the AUSD to submit a report to the CDE and the
Assembly and Senate Education Committees with the following
information:
a) Programs, if any, the district offered on the fifth day
and their participation rates;
b) Whether the four-day school week schedule resulted in
any fiscal savings;
c) Impact on overall attendance of the schools operating a
four-day school week; and
d) If adopted in this bill, programs for which the SPI
waived minimum time and five-consecutive-day requirements
and the operational and educational effect of the programs
if they operated at less time than required.
Optional Provision : The AUSD may adopt the provision
authorizing the SPI to waive minimum time and
five-consecutive-day requirements for the following programs
provided that the district meets the minimum time requirements
for each program:
1)Preschools;
2)Before and after school programs;
3)Independent study programs;
4)Child nutrition and food service programs;
5)Community day schools;
6)Regional occupational centers or programs; and
7)Continuation high schools.
Arguments in Support . According to the author, AUSD "faces
challenges unique to rural, small districts in our
state?.Energy, food service and transportation are costly while
teacher recruitment and retention is no easy feat. A four-day
school week allows rural districts such as Alpaugh to recruit
and retain educators by offering the benefit of a shortened week
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that very few schools have the opportunity to do. The passage
of AB 691 will allow Alpaugh Unified School District to not only
save and [sic] estimated 20% in operating costs, but provide an
incentive for greater recruitment and retention of teachers with
its flexible, family-friendly schedule."
Robert M. Hudson, Superintendent of AUSD, states, "The proposed
schedule would shift from 180 days to 158 days in the school
instructional year, while the instructional minutes would remain
the same despite the implementation of a compressed schedule.
Since the district already has 11 Mondays scheduled as holidays,
this would be the logical choice for the non-work day. The four
day work week does provide immediate fiscal relief to the recent
deficits by saving money in the areas of substitutes, increased
ADA, lower utility bills, and internal restructuring."
Related Legislation . AB 868 (V. Manuel Perez), also scheduled
for this committee hearing, authorizes the Palo Verde Unified
School District to operate one or more schools on a four-day
school week. AB 868 is virtually identical to AB 1889 (Berg).
Prior Legislation . AB 1889 (Berg) authorizes PVCUSD to operate
a four-day school week until January 1, 2015.
SB 1138 (Hollingsworth), Chapter 465, Statutes of 2004,
authorizes Borrego Springs Unified School District, Julian Union
High School District, Warner Unified School District,
Jamul-Dulzura Union Elementary School District, and Marysville
Joint Unified School District, to operate a four-day school
week.
AB 1820 (Maze), Chapter 481, Statutes of 2004, authorizes the
Death Valley Unified School District to operate a four-day
school week.
SB 1142 (Chesbro), introduced in 2004, would have authorized the
Pacific Unified School District, Leggett Valley Unified School
District, and Reeds Creek Elementary School District to operate
for less than 180 days without penalty as long as the same
number of annual minutes of instruction is provided. Governor
Schwarzenegger vetoed the bill stating that it would defeat the
objective of the incentive funding program.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
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Support
Alpaugh Unified School District
California School Boards Association
Small School Districts' Association
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Sophia Kwong Kim / ED. / (916) 319-2087