The Clarksville School Board back in April approved the academic calendar for the 2025-26 school year, which includes a four-day school week schedule.
Clarksville’s school week will run Tuesday through Friday with professional development for staff on alternating Mondays. Bryan Boysen, the shared superintendent of the North Butler and Clarksville school districts, tells RadioOnTheGo News one of the concerns about the four-day schedule was childcare on Mondays.
“That was a question and a concern and rightfully so. So we’re looking into options for that and see what we can do there. That is a work in progress. We do have a kind of a plan to see if we can make that happen. You know, I think that’s something districts aren’t obligated to do by law, but we’re certainly doing whatever we can to help those families out. When we talked to other districts about daycare as a concern, they said families kind of worked it out. It’s kind of like summer break or holiday breaks, spring breaks. Families find a way to cover watching those kiddos. But yes, that was a concern. We’ve addressed it. We’re continuing to address it. So if we do get daycare secure, it’d be just for those Mondays.”
According to the Iowa Department of Education website, 18 school districts in Iowa adopted four-day school weeks for 2024-25. Boysen says this schedule is a growing trend, especially for smaller, rural schools.
“You know, by statute, have to approve a school district calendar. So the vibe, what we got for input was, you know, that was a concern is like, ‘is this permanent forever and ever?’ And I’m like, ‘no, it’s not.’ We kind of see how it’s going. To my knowledge, I don’t know any district that has done the four day calendar that discontinued it. I think it’s rolling forward. A few districts we talked to actually polled or surveyed families about halfway through the year, like in December. And the positive feedback actually increased exponentially. It went up compared to the beginning of the year. So again, most of our intel showing us that it’s been a positive experience for families and staff.”
A regular school day for Clarksville in 2025-26 will run from 8:00 a.m. to 3:40 p.m. The first day of school is August 25th with 151 student contact days.
