LUMBERTON, Texas — The Lumberton Independent School District school board failed to pass a proposal to adopt a 4-day school week during a school board meeting Thursday night.
The vote for a hybrid calendar failed 3-3, with one board member abstaining.
If approved, students would attend school the traditional five days during the months of August and September.
The remainder of the school year, students would switch to the four day school week, with students spending an extra ten minutes in class each day.
The school board will reconsider other calendar options at a future meeting.
Parent Katie Roberts says she likes the idea of having the kids at home and spending time with them, but acknowledges this may not be the case for others.
"It could be hard for working parents that use childcare and stuff, but other than that, I think its a good idea personally," she said.
Parent Juanita Mobley feels a four-day school week would interfere with learning and extra-curricular activities.
"I just feel like they're not getting everything that they should be getting done Monday through Friday. So, they have things after school, they have you know, sports, choir and all that other good stuff," she said.
In a meeting that was held Thursday night, December 8, 2022, at the Lumberton ISD offices at 121 South Main Street in Lumberton, an unanimous poll was taken by 369 staff members.
77-percent voted yes and 22-percent voted no.
Amy Smith previously told 12News that she thinks the 4-day school week would help ease her schedule, since she has to pick up and drop of her kids to both school and practice.
On the other hand Lumberton ISD Parent Jerramie McGough, says that he is concerned about how what he will do with his kids for that extra day off.
The school board goes through the process of approving the next school year's calendar annually.
This would be the first year that the "District Education Improvement Committee" has ever included a four-day week in their proposals.
As of 2016, the Texas Education Agency switched from requiring 180 instructional days to 75,600 minutes per school year. That gave districts the freedom decide which days students attend school.
In 2019 after months of debate and conversations with parents the board at the Devers Independent School District unanimously voted for the district to switch to a four-day school week for the 2019-20 year.
Board trustees at the Jasper Independent School District voted in March 2022 to move their calendar to a four-day week that started for the current 2022-23 school year.