Three small and rural districts described multi-year experience operating under the "economy and efficiency" waiver (a calendar flexibility that reduces student days while increasing daily minutes).

Brian Freeman, superintendent of a small k
2 district on the Colville Reservation, said aligning the school week with the tribe's Monday'2 Thursday work cycle reduced absences and improved staff retention. Freeman cited a small increase in average daily attendance in his district after adopting the waiver.

Tabitha Myers, who led the Waterville School District through adoption, said Waterville dropped from 180 student days to 150 student days but increased student instructional hours overall by eliminating half days and late starts. "We actually increased the instructional hours by about 30 hours per year by going to 30 less days, but all days being full days," Myers said. The district paired the change with monthly professional development and reported a near 10-point rise in math and reading proficiency in the first year that has since been maintained at or above state averages.

Tom Whitmore, superintendent of Bickleton School District, said the district moved to the four-day model 15 years ago and reported reduced student and teacher absences and improved teacher collaboration during full-day professional-development sessions. Whitmore cited reductions in average absences across grade bands (k absences fell from 8.75 to 5.73; 7 from 9.13 to 5.84; 9
2 from 10.77 to 8.98) and in teacher absences (29.99 to 18.30) during the initial years after the change.

The nut graf: the superintendents told the committee the waiver can deliver local benefits (attendance, retention, focused professional development) but emphasized community buy-in is essential and said implementation looks different in larger districts.

Several presenters and the Rural Education Center director said they believe the option should be available to larger districts too; a State statute currently limits eligibility by district size and the legislature recently expanded the number of small districts permitted to use the waiver from 10 to 30.

Ending: the committee heard the rural districts' experiences as evidence that local flexibility can improve outcomes, and presenters asked lawmakers to preserve and consider expanding access to the waiver.