By R.J. Anderson

This is a follow-up Q&A to the article "Four-Day Savings" that appears in the June/July 2011 issue of Athletic Management.

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AM: How long have you been following the four-day week model?
Bunnell: This is our second school year. We are in school Monday through Thursday, and we start at 7:54 and go until 4 o'clock. So we added just about an hour to each day. This spring, we are approved for two more years of this model.

How would you assess the transition?
The parents and kids have adjusted well. Athletics-wise there are some nice benefits from it.

What are some of those benefits?
The majority of our teams play on Friday. By having Fridays off we don't have athletes missing class time to travel to away games.

We've seen an improvement with our eligibility and grades. We're a rural school--our closest opponent is an hour away. When kids were in class five days a week and traveling on Tuesday and Friday for basketball games, they'd be missing the same classes every Tuesday and Friday to leave a half hour or an hour early.

With this schedule, they only have one day when they'll leave early. Also, we've been able to set it up so that our long trips--like the three-and-a-half-hour trip we have when we play one of our conference opponents--fall on a Friday.

How have your coaches adjusted?
As a small school with only one gym, it's affected our winter sports the most. We split gym time and the kids are here a little later than before. The first session will start at about 4:15 and end about six or 6:30, so the kids are here a little later but athletes are pretty resilient.

I tell the coaches that I prefer they not go past six o'clock unless they absolutely have to. An hour and a half practice is usually plenty. It just requires that the coaches be organized and ready to go when practice starts.

Do you hold practices on Fridays?
We do. At our preseason coaches' meetings, I tell my coaches to explain that they'll be practicing on Fridays and that they set a time and not jump around. That way the parents can set up a schedule. That's worked pretty well for us.

What are some of the negatives to this model?
The hardest part is getting kids here on Friday. Our community is a very low-income community, so not a lot of kids have cars.

How did you prepare for the transition to the four-day week?
I did as much research as I could by talking to schools that were already doing the four-day week. We had a couple schools in our state doing it, so that's where I started. I asked them what questions to expect from parents and players and what obstacles they faced and how they dealt with those issues.

How has the move affected your participation numbers?
Our participation numbers are up since we went to this model. We've actually had a huge increase. For example, we have 28 kids in the softball program this year. Two years ago, we barely had enough players to field a varsity team.

Our numbers are growing, and I think the four-day week has contributed to that by allowing a lot of our students to get a part-time job during the day on Friday, which has helped them not to have to give up athletics during the rest of the week.

Have you been contacted about other schools investigating a similar model?
This spring, I've talked to around five schools that are looking to make a similar transition to the four-day workweek next year. I think there's 12 schools in our state doing it now. Four Arizona schools called me, and one in Missouri.

What do you tell them?
I try to do for them what other schools did for me. I try to share some of the bumps and bruises we went through and things they can do to avoid them. I tried to help them anticipate questions and provide answers.

How has your personal workweek evolved?
I joke that as an athletic director I don't get a four-day workweek. If we have a home event on a Friday, I have to be there to set it up and staff the event, then make sure it's taken down.

In basketball, we play all of our jv and varsity boys' and girls' games in the same place on the same night. That allows us to have better crowds. Instead of having 18 home games to staff, I have nine. But our first games starts at 2:30 and I'm here at noon and get home by 10 or 10:30. So as an athletic director, my hours haven't changed very much.


R.J. Anderson is the Online Editor at Athletic Management.