By LAMAR THAMES

Whether you like his ideas or not, you have to admire the way Clay County School Board Chairman Charlie Van Zant Jr. thinks outside the box in trying to come up with methods to cut expenses for the cash-strapped system.

Earlier this year, Van Zant broached the subject of a four-day school schedule. I think he knew he wouldn’t get much support for the unpopular idea but he put it out there anyway. 

Now, Van Zant wants to hear from the public about another idea he has: a longer school day that would result in fewer teaching days in the school calendar year.

Van Zant says there are two bills in the Legislature that would make it possible to change the actual numbers of days taught, thus possibly saving money. Scenarios running from adding 20 to 40 to 60 extra minutes a day could shorten the mandated 180-school year by X number of days if the Legislature passes versions of the two bills.

Van Zant said a rough estimate he made on a school day extended by 60 minutes would save approximately $14 million, possibly allowing the district to salvage some of the 450 jobs they are expecting to have to cut this year. He and other board members asked Superintendent Ben Wortham at their March 23 meeting to have the district staff estimate how much could be saved under the different scenarios.

The board also wants to hear from parents about the possible conflicts this proposal would present. Recognizing that they want as much feedback as possible, board members and the superintendent appealed to media members, union representatives and district media relations director Darlene Mahla to spread the word about the potential change as far and wide as possible. I am doing my part by asking whoever reads this to let their school representatives know your feelings on the matter. You can find as much contact information for the school district as you want on their web site. Just click here and it will take you to it: www.clay.k12.fl.us

Basically, the idea behind the longer school day is to cut down on the actual numbers of days taught during a school year, thus saving transportation, fuel, electricity and other daily operating costs. The actual savings may be somewhat less than Van Zant came up with, however. Wortham said the best he could arrive at was around $5 million, based on a 60-minute longer school day that would shorten the school year from 180 days to 150 days, or one-sixth of the year. 

The shorter school year would mean longer vacation periods, which I am sure students would love, but may pose day care problems for some parents. Most educators rue the idea that parents often look at schools as cheap baby-sitting alternatives for their children. But the truth is, most of us do look at it like that and a lot of families base many of their major life decisions around those issues. It is wise for school administrators to acknowledge those mindsets and to plan accordingly. 

The real key to salvaging any more jobs lies with the Legislature, whether it is in the form of a temporary 1-cent sales tax increase, removal of some of the more absurd state sales-tax exemptions (but hands off medicine and food), a general tax increase or use of some of the federal stimulus money, which Gov. Charlie Crist wants to make available.

The board can continue to whittle here and there, cutting expenses where it can, but a bigger bang for the buck lies in Tallahassee, which seems to cast a suspicious eye toward school district expenditures. Legislators look at the long-held belief that school districts such as Miami-Dade are drowning in administrative overload and assume that all districts are in the same situation. It is simply not true, and state funding should be meted out accordingly, giving more to those districts that have been good stewards of the public’s money and less to the ones that have not. That is true leadership and that needs to start happening in Tallahassee.

Parents need to led their elected leaders know their feelings about these and other issues related to our schools — the single most important pubic element in any of our lives. Even if you don’t have children, you were once educated somewhere and you have been touched by the educational system. Get in touch and let them know how you feel.