Administration, students weigh merit of four-day weeks, money to go to General Fund

By Patrick Bryant
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For senior Elijah Huang, taking AP Macroeconomics over the summer was a way for him, like many others, to get ahead in his studies. However, along with his other peers, Huang experienced a big change in the summer school’s schedule.

With the hope of cutting back on expenses, the school only allowed one session of summer school, which, instead of being four weeks of five-day-per-week classes, became five weeks of a Monday through Thursday class week, something Huang said he enjoyed.

“I actually liked (having Friday off) because it allowed my summer to be a little more relaxed than (I had) anticipated,” Huang said via e-mail. “(It) allowed more time to study and hang out with other people.”

The purpose of the change in schedules was to allow for all Carmel Clay School’s facilities to close, which allowed utilities to be turned off or reduced. On Monday mornings, air conditioning was back up and running again.

The side effect of summer school change brought great savings to the district. According to Roger McMichael, assistant superintendent in charge of business affairs, the practice saved the district approximately $100,000. Each building in Carmel Clay Schools, which, according to McMichael, claims 3 million square feet, is usually empty during the summer, and McMichael said it was best to take the opportunity to save money in the situation.

“We (the district) limit the amount of utilities we use (during the summer) since, generally, students aren’t in the school buildings,” McMichael said. “We’re always looking to be as effective and efficient as we can. We saw this as something that didn’t affect most students.”

The money that wasn’t spent on utilities over the summer will remain in the general fund, McMichael said. That fund, which totals around $100 million, pays for utility expenses. He said that although he thought the four-day weeks in summer was a success, it has yet to be determined whether the practice will occur again next summer.

Additionally, students like junior Ateev Gupta said turning the utilities off or down through the summer causes some problems with students’ and teachers’ comfort levels. Gupta, who also took economics over the summer, considered his discomfort a distraction coming back Monday after the school’s air-conditioning was back on.

“(The heat) was a distraction to the point where we changed rooms,” Gupta said. “I don’t think (the discomfort) ruined the class, but it was an inconvenience that should’ve been taken care of.”

Gupta said he believes the air-conditioning should have been adjusted to cool the school more quickly by Monday. He said the school’s temperature was something talked about a lot by teachers and students alike.

“On Mondays, everything was a bit slower, and trying to get students involved took a little big longer. Both students and teachers complained about the heat,” Gupta said.

According to McMichael, what the school will spend on air-conditioning is one of the many uncertainties when planning expenses for the year.

Bob Yull, the energy manager for Carmel Clay Schools, said the expense for air-conditioning for the district varies from year to year depending on temperatures. For instance, the difference in cost between this year’s hot summer and the unusually cool summer from last year was $50,000.

As for Carmel’s switch to four-day weeks during summer school, Yull said the practice was something that brought what he called “cost avoidance” to the school.

According to McMichael, the “cost avoidance” that Yull referred to isn’t something that necessarily will be spent, but it will be something that can go back into the classroom if need be.

McMichael said, “We avoided spending (an extra) $100,000 on utilities, which will allow those funds to be directed into the classroom.”