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FORT POLK, La. — The 2025-2026 school year will bring an innovative change as Vernon Parish Schools introduce a hybrid four-day school schedule. The board voted to approve the new schedule at the April 8th school board meeting.
The hybrid schedule means there will be both five-day weeks and four-day Tuesday through Friday weeks throughout the school year. Many schools are switching to true four-day school weeks and the school board looked at all the peer review research before making this change.
Before the change was made, school board polling data showed that approximately 80 percent of school employees were in favor of the new four-day hybrid calendar. Additionally, parents were polled through the Parent Square mobile app and a majority of parents who participated in the poll were in support of the hybrid calendar.
The new calendar starts in August. The school weeks that include Monday school days take place on these dates:
•Aug. 11, 18, and 25
•Sept. 8, 15, 22, and 29
•Nov. 10 and 17
•Dec. 15
•March 23
•April 13 and 20
Joey Bartz, Vernon Parish School Board personnel director, said the school calendarwill start the year with full five-day weeks. The four-day weeks, when students are off on Mondays, will begin after the Labor Day holiday. Full five-day weeks will usually coincide with weeks preceding long holidays such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, spring break, and two weeks during the state testing period.
“There are several reasons we chose Monday, but one of the largest was that it is our highest absentee day for both students and teachers,” Bartz said.
He explained the change in the school calendar mostly boils down the positive financial impact adopting the hybrid calendar would have.
“We had to get creative with cost cutting measures and are conservatively projecting to see somewhere in the neighborhood of $1-$1.5 million in savings and reimbursement by utilizing the hybrid calendar. Most of these savings will come via the meal reimbursement program, our energy audit program and a projected lowered cost with our substitute teacher payroll.” Bartz said.
There were other benefits as well.
The change in schedule was an additional opportunity to feed students before they head home from school.
“We were able to extend the instructional school day by just 5 minutes to bring on a third meal option that the USDA pays for. This will allow students to have breakfast, lunch and a late afternoon snack before they go home, which they did not get before,” Bartz said.
The hybrid schedule won’t have an academic impact.
“Vernon parish is a top 10 school district as far as academic standing — we don’t see this changing. People can be assured we won’t sacrifice our academic standards,” Bartz said. “We will be monitoring the situation closely, but we aren’t expecting that the four-day calendar will change the high level of academic achievement we strive for.”
Bartz said their military families have also made it known they would like to spend more time with their kids, especially considering the training and deployments that are part of military life.
“That was another benefit of going to a four-day hybrid calendar. This will give military families extra time with their children, and we hope it will help with their overall quality of life,” Bartz said. For more information call 337-239-3401.
| Date Taken: | 07.31.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 08.05.2025 10:54 |
| Story ID: | 544757 |
| Location: | FORT POLK, LOUISIANA, US |
| Web Views: | 35 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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