Rural Texas School Districts Moving To 4-Day Work Week

(Austin, TX) — Rural Texas school districts are switching to four-day school weeks in an effort to recruit and retain teachers amid ongoing staff shortages.

Smaller districts can’t match higher paying districts, so some of them, such as Mineral Wells, Chico, Athens, and Jasper, are offering a Monday-through-Thursday work week as an incentive.

The Houston ISD, the largest district in Texas, has no plans of moving to a four-day school week, but has raised its starting salary for teachers to $61,500 for the upcoming school year.