By Jessica Covitz 
Contributing Writer

It’s common knowledge that Monday is the most hated day of the week. One school district in Colorado hates Mondays so much that it removed them from its schedule all together. Starting Tuesday the 18th, school district 27J, located in Centennial State, will begin having a four-day school week in order to cut costs.  
This particular school district provides services for almost 18,000 students in about five different cities. By taking away one school day each week, the district believes that costs will decrease by $1 million in only the first year. With savings like that, it should take away two days of the school week! 
A million dollars? How can that kind of money be saved simply by not having school on Mondays? Reducing the length of the school week will reduce expenses on school buses and substitute teachers. The hope is that these saved expenses will add up and lead to a more success for the future of the district. 
These are not the only reasons the district decided to reduce days of school week. Tracey L. Rudnick, district 27J’s public information officer, says that the district expects the savings to increase each year as they find different ways to continuously cut costs. 
“One million is a small portion of our overall operating budget, but we anticipate as we continue down this path additional savings will be seen year after year,” Rudnick said. 
Unfortunately, school district 27J is one of the lowest funded districts located in the Denver metropolitan area, and therefore it has a hard time keeping great quality teachers on its payroll. In fact, it lost many teachers in the past due to protests of low wages and even lower school funding. It hopes that by cutting back costs, it will soon be able to afford the best teachers again. 
With respects to parents of young children, in order to make everyone happy, the district is implementing all-day child care on Mondays for a low cost of $30 a day per student. This will help tremendously for those parents who work during the week.  
From the students’ point of view, it is important to remember that while they will have one less day of school, they are still going to have the same amount of coursework required to complete. This can end up being quite overwhelming for students, especially if they are involved in any extracurricular activities. 
While pounds of homework are due, even when there was a five-day school week, having an extra day to get everything done will be extremely helpful. Many students face issues with procrastination or learning disabilities, so by having the extra time to get things completed can result in better academic grades for those students.  
This was a smart decision for district 27J, considering all the factors. It is clear that significant research and planning went in to making this decision before acting on it.  
More school districts around the nation should consider following this plan of action, because there is always a need for more funding. One less day of school would not be the end of the world. Perhaps it would even excite students enough they’d be eager to attend school.