Florida School Saves Cash & Jobs With 4 Day Week

Several companies have begun shifting to four day work weeks to save money on energy costs. This might help the business community, but could it work in education?

Schools teaching kindergarten through high school students have spent some time researching the possibility of switching to four day school weeks but have not come up with a solution for childcare during the fifth day while parents are still at work.

Fortunately, working around parental schedules is less of a problem for community college students. Florida's Brevard Community College in Daytona Beach made the leap from five day school weeks to four last year. The result has been a savings of $267,000 that has been re-invested for 10 new teaching positions. In addition, absenteeism is down 44% and there has been a 50% increase in employment applications.

The great part is that Brevard Community College and its student benefit from cost savings and more time off while we all benefit from energy efficiency and less traffic.