Page Unified School District will move to a four-day school week beginning in August at the beginning of the 2024-25 school year. The first day of school will be Aug. 5.

PUSD’s school board voted on the measure at last week’s regular school board. Four of the five school board members voted in favor of it, with one member abstaining. 

The board’s decision came after considering input from PUSD parents, teachers, students and the community, which was collected using an online survey. As part of the consideration process, the district created two sets of school calendars: one for a traditional five-day school week, and one for a four-day school week. The board spent several hours on Dec. 11 during a study session going over the survey results and discussing the merits and disadvantages of adopting a four-day school week.

Results of the survey showed that 72.65% of survey-takers were in favor of a four-day school week, with 16.10% against it and 11.25% neutral.

Schools converting to four-day school weeks is a growing trend in Arizona, and it’s especially popular with Arizona’s rural school districts. One of the main reasons schools give for moving to a four-day school week is that it helps them recruit and retain teachers. That was also one of the main reasons PUSD wanted to take a deeper look at it.

Additional information regarding how converting to a four-day school week will affect sports and other extra-curricular activities will be shared with the public in the coming weeks and months. After adopting the four-day school week, the governing board also adopted the calendar for the next three school years. 

PUSD has posted additional information on its website under the 4 Day School tab. It includes such things as next year’s school calendar and the full results from the survey.