Our Opinion: No easy answers to four-day school week

Lyon County school trustees are discussing a four-day school week in order to cut about $750,000 from their budget for the coming year.

Facing a $3.5 million gap between projected revenue and expenses, the district hopes that reducing the school week will save a big chunk of money.

With options that include laying off teachers or closing schools, trustees look at the four-day school week as a means to avoid some of the harder choices.

There are some advantages to a four-day school week. At small, more isolated schools where sports are a big part of life, student athletes can attend Friday games without worrying about missing school.

Whittell High School in Douglas County is wrapping up its second year on a four-day school week. While not motivated by budget concerns, Whittell's four-day week has saved about 20 percent on its support costs.

We can see Lyon County with its long bus rides seeing some financial benefit from reducing the week.

The real question though is what happens to those students who aren't involved in sports on the day school's out.

While people work lots of different shifts in Nevada, there is a substantial margin who work Monday through Friday, and will have to find some means to deal with their children on that additional day.

This is not a minor issue of balancing public good against individual inconvenience. Younger children will have to be cared for, older children guided away from mischief.

The students who are involved in sports are not the ones we're worried about. Idle hands do the devil's work, and we believe that whatever savings Lyon County finds in a four-day school week may be taken from them in other ways.