Four day school weeks? Not a Fan

The Sioux City newspaper had an article today about an Iowa school considering a four day school week. Several schools in Nebraska have implemented a four day school week, most of them small, rural schools. They can meet the minimum hours of instruction required by the Nebraska department of education (1080 hours) by having a longer school day. I cannot agree with those who only want to meet the minimum hours of instruction. My philosophy is that we need to maximum academic learning time for our students. We hire teachers to work 185 days, with 180 of those days intended to be teaching days. Our high school students receive between 1225-1250 hours of instruction each year and I don't intend to settle for anything less. That stance isn't always popular with students (and some staff).