Dear FISD school board, 

I am a Frisco student among multiple students who feel like the 5 day school week is not only time consuming and long, but also exhausting and stressful for both students and teachers. Changing our regular school weeks to 4 days will not only reduce stress and be beneficial to our mental health, but reduce cost, increase time for lesson planning and increase the amount of time that a student can spend on their work, spend with their families, and reflect on their mental health. 

Research can back me up. A study from the NEA shows that schools in rural and suburban areas adopted with this schedule felt better about their plans and their mental health “Quite frankly, this year's lessons are the best we've ever had, and I think the change to four days has allowed us to be the teachers we truly desire to be, giving our kids the best possible learning experience, while renewing our mental devotion to the profession we felt driven to join.” (A teacher from the article stating her beliefs about a 4 day week). This is because teachers have gotten more time to prepare a better and more engaging lesson and students felt more motivated, refreshed and ready to attend school. Another study from Colorado also shows the effects about their 4 day school week and found that they cut costs, increased the amount of content teachers could cover, increased attendance and decreased school bullying (more information about this article can be found here https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ987605.pdf This is especially important because of how much school work an FISD student receives. So much so that missing one or two days worth of school can put you behind and potentially ruin your grade for the quarter (it’s happened to me

multiple times). Even I put in my own research out of curiosity. I’ve asked multiple students in my school or that attend my school district, and almost all of them said that felt more refreshed, relaxed and more motivated to attend school.

More importantly let’s look at the other benefits it provides more closely, it reduces the cost, which is important in FISD school districts since they seem to be lacking in money compared to other school districts such as Prosper ISD. It also decreases bullying. Bullying is very apparent in my school, I remember distinctly a kid discussing being bullied on social media by her classmates. And I also have been bullied in my school while class was in session and nothing was done. The schools in FISD seem to have an immense bullying problem that isn’t being solved. Most of the time when I witness bullies getting their punishments for severe bullying, the max they get is 3 days worth of suspension; And that’s if the schools feeling generous. So if the school decides to go 4 day weeks instead of 5, the students will most likely decrease in their pestering and bickering of other students. And teacher planning, teachers can have more time to throughly plan out their lessons, grade work properly. Give out more engaging assignments and possibly have an increase in their own spare time. Which also can have a positive effect on a students education. 

I understand some counterpoints that can be made, such as less school time overall for students. But quality over quantity is what really matters in our education. And I think many students agree with that too. More time for teachers to put in their quality of education and more time for students to have a better ability to listen to their teachers. 

If you want more localized data from this district, I’ll be providing a form here (https://forms.gle/bGUwzZpyUsAaVxXT8 which I’ll update the results from it when there is a good amount of submissions.

I hope you take this message seriously and thank you for taking your time to read this essay.