Four-day school week could save money

By Carrie Moore Staff Writer

At Tuesday’s Pike County School Board meeting, one board member suggested the board should investigate a four-day school week, as a solution to state funding cuts.

“We’re going to have to look at a four-day (school) week,” said J.C. Chaney, District 3 board member, whose suggestion was met with opposition from Pike Schools Superintendent Roger Wagner. Wagner said a four-day school week would drastically cut instructional time in the classroom.

“We may save money today, but we’re dealing with these kids’ future and we’ll have to deal with the results later,” Wagner said.

Chaney himself voiced doubt about the shorter week.

“I’m not saying it’s the right thing, but we’re looking at getting by,” he said, and added that investigating the alternative was the fiscally responsible thing to do.

Chaney said if the choice came down to laying people off or going to a four-day week in order to save the district money, he would like to see the school week shortened, should it prove to be a feasible alternative.

Chaney said he has heard preliminary reports that it would save the district $3 million, but a thorough cost analysis has not been performed.

The discussion about the four-day week was sparked by the board’s discussion of the next tentative school year budget, which the board voted to approve.

In the budget, according to Pike Schools Finance Director Nancy Ratliff, the district had to cut all non-fixed expenditures, including new textbooks and school buses, to get the budget to balance.

“Unless we come up with a way to reduce our overhead, we’re looking at a very scary year up ahead,” Ratliff said.

Later, Ratliff tempered her statement by explaining that the tentative budget passed at the end of every May does not include grant monies and other unofficial revenue which the district is typically awarded every year.

Those monies are added into the working budget, which does not get approved until September. She said the district will probably receive more money than what is included in the tentative budget, which will allow the placement of additional expenditures.

Also at Tuesday’s meeting, the board recognized the accomplishments of several groups of students, including eight county teams who placed at the state level in the Student Technology Leadership Program (STLP) State Showcase Competition. One of those teams, the one from Phelps Elementary, placed second in the state.

Other students recognized Tuesday were the state spelling bee winners and Governor’s Scholars Program recipients from the county.

Also Tuesday, the board viewed plans for softball fields at Phelps High School and at Pike Central High/Mullins Elementary. It also viewed plans for a cafeteria expansion at Dorton Elementary.

Billy Lane, Codell Construction superintendent for the new Mullins Elementary, told the board that their request for a package sewer system for Mullins had been denied by the Kentucky Division of Water. He told the school board it would soon have to choose whether to reapply with sewer upgrades, request a variance, or pay to run a sewer line attaching Pike Central High and Mullins Elementary to the City of Pikeville’s sewer system.

Lane said Pike Central is currently operating with a package sewer system like the one planned for Mullins. The board has to reapply for permission to use that sewer system every five years, which will occur two years from now.

He said every five years, the board could decide not to renew the permission it once gave to Pike Central, and if a similar system is installed at Mullins, there will be two schools running that risk.

Lane said running a sewer line to connect the two schools to Pikeville’s sewer may save the board money in the long run, even though it is the most costly alternative. This is because the division of water may make the school do so a few years from now anyway, and if it does, the board will have also lost the money it spent on the new sewer system at Mullins.

Wagner said the board will decide on a sewer alternative at Mullins after it receives the results of a feasibility study which the construction company will conduct.