On Friday morning, Alliance Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Troy Unzicker announced that he scheduled a public forum to take place April 24 at the High School Performing Arts Center at 6 p.m. to discuss the possibility of shifting Alliance Public Schools to a four-day week and offering the pros and cons.
The public is encouraged to attend the forum to learn about the change. Unzicker briefly discussed the possibility of the change at the APS Board Meeting on April 8, noting plans to meet with staff regarding the topic before scheduling a public forum.
“We are, as an administrative group, continuing to look from the work session request to have us look at a four-day school week,” said Unzicker. “I think at this point were ready for me to stand in front of staff and listen to concerns, questions, comments and get some feedback from them. If it still is positive feedback, then I’m going to open it up publicly for a public forum upon the topic.”
Unzicker emphasized that they are looking for both positive and negative feedback in this process.
“I want to be clear, we’re looking for both positives and negatives,” Unzicker said. “I want the people to be able to come forward and give us their reasoning so we can create answers and at least share what we would do in that situation.”
If this change is going to take place before the next school year, he explained that there is a lot to be accomplished to meet that goal.
“If we’re going to have that in place by next year, I feel it has to be to the board by May, so there is a lot of work to do if this happens, because we have to change schedules, we have to change school calendars,” said Unzicker. “We have to have negotiation discussions about what are the hours going to look like for teachers because it is going to shorten the number of days. What are the professional development days going to look like? What’s the administrative dates and hours? So, a lot of discussion to be had, so we need to keep that rolling. I’m going to continue to push forward unless I get feedback from Board Members saying ‘we don’t want that, back out.’ Because, you’d save me a ton of work. Otherwise, I’m going to proceed with that.”