Some Rural Students get 4-Day School Week Due to High Fuel Costs

Some rural students across the nation are getting what many of us working adults wish we could have – a four-day week. High fuel costs have made it extremely expensive for schools to manage paying for transportation and cooling. Cutting out one day per week has made it possible to avoid eliminating important school programs and to preserve staff in areas like Kentucky, New Mexico and Minnesota.

From Reuters:

“For rural school districts where buses may travel 100 miles round-trip each day, there certainly are transportation savings worth considering,” said Marc Egan, the director of federal affairs at the National School Boards Association.

Egan said about 100 schools in as many as 16 states have already moved to a four-day school week, many to save money on transportation, heating and cooling.

Nevada’s White Pine School District switched just one of its schools to a four-day week three years ago. Now, with energy costs soaring, four other schools in the district are following suit.

“We’re looking at it district-wide with energy costs being at the forefront of the conversation,” said Bob Dolezal, superintendent of Nevada’s White Pine County School District, which is facing a 14 percent budget cut due to a shortfall in state funding.

Damn, how I would have loved having a four-day week when I was in school. The Reuters article doesn’t specify how the schools make up for that lost time – longer days? Shorter summer? Either way, I bet the kids are thrilled to have a three-day weekend. Four-day school week FTW!

Link [Reuters]
Photo credit: Flickr user 416 Style

Virginia High School Catches 280,000 Gallons of Rainwater Annually

While many of us have yet to even install rainwater barrels outside our homes, some people are saving a dramatic amount of water with giant barrels placed outside public buildings like schools and office buildings.  The Langston Brown Community Center and High School in Arlington, Virginia has two 24-ft tall 11,000-gallon cisterns to catch and store rainwater, which capture up to 280,000 gallons per year.  One tank is located at the back of the school and the other is in front, covered with panels to make it blend in seamlessly with the building.

Schools are such a great place to deploy this kind of green technology.  It teaches the kids early on never to let resources go to waste, and makes it such a normal everyday thing that they will hopefully grow up to use these resource-saving measures in their daily lives without question.  Way to go, Langston Brown!

Link [Metaefficient]