Pateros School Board explains four-day week decision to Pateros City Council

PATEROS—When the school doors open on August 26, it will be the beginning of a new experience for Pateros students. They will try out a four-day school week that will give them Fridays off for the remainder of the academic year.

Pateros school board director Rick Trocano addressed the city council on August 19 to explain the board’s decision. Trocano cited several factors behind the schedule change.

• Pateros school is losing students.
• The school does not have the athletics available at other schools.
• The school does have the facilities, but its buildings are aging.

Pateros is joining Waterville-Mansfield (since 2018) as the other local area school among 30 districts statewide that has adopted the reduced week. 

Trocano said that nationwide, about 900 schools have four-day weeks.

“And none of them want to give it up,” Trocano said.

Both the Pateros Treehouse Early Education Organization (PTEEO) and Brewster Boys and Girls Club stepped up to accommodate students on Fridays.

“I met (BBGC Executive Director Elizabeth Shepard), who runs the Brewster Boys and Girls Club,” said Trocano. “She is a certified Washington State teacher.”

Trocano said the BBGC will provide assistant teachers and parent volunteers to help provide one-on-one help with schoolwork and other activities.

“Let’s use Friday as a catchup day,” Trocano said.

The state opened 30 spots for districts with enrollments of less than 1,000 students to apply for an “Economy and Efficiency” waiver that allows a school to modify the 180-day attendance requirement. Pateros applied and was approved for one of those spots.

Public meetings were held on April 18 and May 9 to gauge public support and address parent concerns about the new schedule. 

PTEEO has a direct connection to the Pateros School District through Superintendent/Principal Scotti Wiltse, who serves as PTEEO treasurer, and school board member Grace Larsen, who serves on both boards. 

The guidelines of PTEEO and BBGC are complementary to the youngsters they serve. PTEEO takes children from birth to age 13, while BBGC takes kids from ages five to eighteen.

Shepard has met with both the Pateros and Mansfield districts to discuss “creating a plan on how BBGC can best support both schools,” said Shepard in an earlier interview with The Quad.

Mike Maltais: 360-333-8483 or michael@ward.media