Monday through Friday, five days a week, 8a.m.- 3p.m. was the schedule many people had when they grew up going to school in Iowa. Sometimes schools had early outs, late starts or snow days. Now, some Iowa schools are only in session Monday through Thursday, with every Friday off. Jealousy immediately enters some people’s minds when they imagine a four-day school week. More time to get your homework done, more time with your friends as a student and more time with your family and kids as a parent. On the other hand, four-day school weeks could be viewed as a risk to districts; less student hours in the classroom, lower test scores and minimal time for staff to get lessons completed in their environment.
The first school in Iowa to start the four-day school week schedule was WACO Community School District, located in the southeastern part of the state. They started four-day school weeks back in 2013, over 10 years ago. Instructors and staff brought up the concept of four-day school weeks due to financial concerns. Spencer Lueders, WACO’s Superintendent of the 2025-2026 school year, is impressed with the community he recently joined.
“We do a great job here at WACO within the last 15 years as far as entertainment of staff, so we attract a lot of people to our building, but we also keep a lot of staff too because of the four-day weeks,” Lueders said.
Flexibility within an occupation can bring a lot of attraction to that position. According to the National Council on Teacher Quality, they stated that teachers and staff were 3% more likely to not return to their positions in the schools with the four-day school week schedule. For WACO CSD and Saydel Community School District, this was not the case. Saydel CSD, located in the Des Moines metro, has one year under their belt of the four-day school week schedule. Todd Martin, Saydel Community School District’s Superintendent, talked about how they considered their options before adapting to the four-day schedule.
“The conversation began about three years prior to us actually adopting. And so, the conversation just came up as an idea,” Martin said. “The committee at that time, because we typically do that in January, wasn’t ready to actually move forward with that concept.”
The Iowa Public Radio reported that six school districts already ran on the four-day school week schedule and 18 school districts adopted the four-day schedule as of the 2024-2025 school year. Saydel was one of those 18 schools who made the switch.
“The second year on the calendar committee that it came up, we began studying it a little bit more, and then the third year, right before we actually went to adoption, we studied it from about September all the way to January and really started making hard decisions. That’s where we put out surveys,” Martin said.
These surveys were sent to understand the “wellness” of the community as Martin put it. The surveys helped them figure out what was best for their students, staff and families. Another reason they considered the four-day school week option was to attract and keep staff in their district. Instructors would find the Saydel community and enjoy their time with the students and coworkers, but different opportunities came their way, sometimes even with a slightly higher salary. They decided to market their district in a new way.
“When people feel well, when people feel planned, prepared, getting more sleep and not as much stress, they perform better,” Martin said. “And that was the entire reason in the end, why we went to it [four-day school week] in looking for those benefits for our district.”
The four-day school week schedule Saydel practices is a great way to keep students, families and especially staff within the district.
WACO CSD has seen positive feedback for over 15 years now with their switch to the schedule. Spencer Lueders is the Superintendent for Highland Community School District and WACO CSD. Highland CSD is located 20 miles south of Iowa City. Highland CSD was one of the 18 school districts who joined the four-day week schedule for the 2024-2025 school year. Lueders also discussed their survey they sent out to the Highland community before the four-day schedule decision was made.
“There was a survey that was given out to parents, given out to students, given out to employees and they scored near 80% positive,” Lueders said.
The Highland community was very welcoming to the four-day school week option entering the district.
“They have an opportunity to be able to catch their breath and then bring back to Monday’s focus. We do have a few five-day weeks within a year but just a very select few just so we can meet the minimal hours,” Lueders said.
For Saydel, WACO and Highland, they have some five-day weeks to meet the requirement for time in the classroom. Homecoming week is a popular week to have a five-day school week so communities can enjoy the celebration and school spirit.
“Luckily for us, homecoming falls in one of our five-day weeks, so we do have school that day. They get to enjoy that entire experience across-the-board,” Lueders said.
Saydel also has a five-day school week during their homecoming week for the community activities.
“There are some Fridays, which we do attend. For example, this is homecoming week. We have school on Friday because it’s such a fun day. We do a parade, we have all kinds of activities and events that take place, and so we didn’t want to rob our community of those things,” Martin said.
These are all great reasons why the four-day weekly schedule for schools works for some communities within Iowa. One big risk that prevents schools from even considering this schedule are decreased test scores. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, all students everywhere scored record breaking lows within academic tests.According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), math and reading scores were dropping, even before the COVID-19 pandemic. School districts try to find solutions to raise their scores. Saydel CSD scores increased after the 2024-2025 school year when they made the four-day switch.
“This last year, one of the main concerns was about academics. ‘What’s going to happen to the academics in a four-day week? It’s one less day.’ We have expanded the day by 30 minutes, so that’s helped quite a bit,” Martin said. “Our academics have improved in 18 of the 21 ISASP (Iowa Statewide Assessment of Student Progress) targeted areas and areas that are assessed. So that is no easy feat.”
While improving test scores throughout a district is a great achievement, that was not Saydel CSD’s only improvement. They also saw an increase in student attendance, professional development in their staff and expectations from everyone in the district have improved.
“There’s all kinds of things that come into play, but that four-day week was a monumental foundational piece for that,” Martin said.
The up and coming four-day school week schedule may or may not be for every community, but it seems to be working for WACO, Highland and Saydel CSD. Both Martin and Lueders gave advice to districts who might be considering making this switch.
“Begin studying early ensures that number one, you are taking baby steps and bringing your community along with you,” Martin said. “In other words, check in with them, make sure that they’re informed, make sure that they are continuing to move forward with their thinking around whether this works or not.”
Attempts to get a community on the same wavelength and side for a change this big is extremely important for the future of the district as a whole. Lueders also gave his advice on what schools should look for before making the switch.
“We have had a ton, a ton of people that reached out and even people outside the state as well that want to know more about the questions that vary. ‘How does this impact your finances, impact overall culture within the building among students and staff and everything else in between?’” Lueders said.
Four-day school weeks are definitely not for everyone, but do not underestimated the benefits of this foreign schedule. They have improved mental health through students and staff drastically, kept staff satisfied and committed to their district, improved K-12 test scores and have been within communities for 15 years.
