The Jerome School District will shift to a four-day week beginning in the 2027-28 school year, joining 77 other Idaho districts and 19 charter schools to adopt the model.

Superintendent Brent Johnson said the shorter week will help Jerome recruit and retain teachers in a competitive market. Jerome is in the “vast minority” of Magic Valley districts that run on the traditional five-day week, he said.

Trustees voted 4-1 Thursday night to adopt the four-day week.

“We need more teachers,” Johnson told EdNews in an interview on Friday morning. “I was trying to say it more eloquently, but we need teachers.”

Johnson, now in his second year as superintendent, took over after former superintendent Pat Charlton retired in 2024. Earlier that year, dozens of teachers staged a walkout to protest the board’s decision to stick with the five-day week.

Johnson said he had a wake-up call when he moved to Idaho from Wisconsin.

“As I landed in July (2024), people were letting me know that there were still a lot of hurt feelings,” he said. There was a lot of frustration and “deep wounds” among staff and community members.

“So then it was like, ‘OK, I don’t think we’re going to be able to move forward with where we want to go until we put this issue to bed,'” Johnson said.

He told staff that he wouldn’t be able to take on the four-day issue in his first year — he needed time to listen and get to know the community. But last summer, the district formed a committee to explore the idea.

A collection of administrators, parents, teachers, community members, business owners and leaders from the Hispanic community (Jerome is 60% Hispanic or Latino) gathered monthly to discuss the pros and cons of a four-day week.

After a month of discussions, Johnson said Friday morning that he felt excited about the board’s decision, but there’s still a lot of work to do.

“I think we’re doing what the community told us they want and what the teachers want,” he said.

Jerome will wait to implement the model

This coming school year will act as a “bridge,” with a few Fridays off. Johnson said parents, businesses and child care facilities will need time to adjust.

Fridays have seen the lowest attendance in Jerome schools by a “pretty significant margin” over the past six years, Johnson said, which means families are trying to tell the district something.

“They have things that they need to do,” he said, whether that is medical appointments, vacations, mental health days or family time.

Beyond education, Johnson said it is becoming more common for doctors, dentists, lawyers and other industries to shift to having Fridays off.

Other overhauls in Jerome

In addition to shifting to a four-day week, the district has made a few other significant changes recently, from transportation to food service.

The district at the beginning of this school year ended a decades-long relationship with transportation contractor North Side Bus Co. and shifted to an in-house transportation service.

But it got off to a rocky start. During the first week of school, the district closed schools for two days. Local media reported that there were issues with routes and some students were left unaccounted for.

“It is a difficult thing to completely start your transportation department from scratch, and we had a slow start to the year, but I’m really proud to say that we have done some fantastic work,” Johnson told EdNews.

Jerome brought transportation in-house but this school year contracted food and custodial services.

The district had struggled to hire a food service director and had issues with hiring and retaining custodial staff. He said the changes have been a “win-win,” particularly with school lunches. Staff are now cooking more food from scratch.

“The food is better, we’re serving more of it, and it’s costing us less,” Johnson said.

Now nearing the end of the second year, Johnson said he applauds the staff’s resiliency through the changes. Change is hard and education is all about doing more with less, he said. “The weight of moving this district forward and being that leader — it’s getting more comfortable, and I feel like I’m getting more in tune to the community every day.”