Some Tri-City students will have Fridays off beginning this fall.
The Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) has approved a waiver for Finley School District to alter its 2025-26 school year calendar, giving students a three-day weekend.
The move is part of a strategy to help the small Benton County school district correct a $1 million budget gap. It will be the only district in the Tri-Cities to have such a schedule.
Voters here rejected a $4.4 million local levy measure in February that would have funded the current cost of the district to operate. Then, in April, voters approved a smaller $3.45 million measure that still required some cuts to sports and positions.
The district was prepared to fully close its athletics departments and make deeper cuts if the April measure failed.
In addition to the drop in local funding, Finley, like other school districts, is facing economic pressures and stagnant revenues from the state.
The shift to a four-day calendar is expected to save Finley School District hundreds of thousands of dollars — mostly through substitute staffing, utilities, food services and classified staffing — and improve academic outcomes for students.Finley School District athletic fields
In Washington, the waiver is limited to up to 30 school districts in the state that have fewer than 1,000 full-time-equivalent students.
Already, 18 school districts are allowed to have the 4-day schedule.
Students will attend classes Monday through Thursday, with the school days being a tad bit longer to account for required amount of instructional time.
Washington state law requires 1,027 instructional hours for students across 180 school days.
But the “economy and efficiency” waiver allows up to 30 small school districts across the state to waive up to 27 school days, and log instructional hours outside of the traditional 180-day schedule.
The plan allows students at Finley Elementary School to be in class 8 a.m. to 3:10 p.m. and students at both Finley Middle School and River View High School are in class 7:55 a.m. to 3:25 p.m.Finley Elementary School Bob Brawdy/Tri-City Herald
The waiver extends through the 2027-28 school year, but Finley Superintendent Bryan Long in a statement said the district will plan to study the schedule change impact in spring 2026 to evaluate its effectiveness and to decide if they will continue with it into the 2026-27 school year.
Finley’s school year begins Monday, Aug. 25, and ends June 18, 2026, for summer break.
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