Clayton News Daily

By Curt Yeomans

cyeomans@news-daily.com

Clayton County Public Schools employees will be getting Fridays off and working two fewer hours per week this summer, in an effort to cut energy costs.

Beginning Monday, the school system's central office, and most schools, will be open only four days per week, with the work week ending on Thursday for district administrators, District Spokesman John Lyles said in a written statement. Only the schools hosting summer school will not change their schedules at first.

Once summer school ends, on June 30, administrators at those schools will begin working shorter work weeks as well, Lyles said. He said the four-day work week is scheduled to end on July 24, when district officials begin preparing for the start of the 2009-2010 school year.

There is a catch to the four-day work week, however. The district offices and schools will stay open one additional hour Monday through Thursday, so office hours will last from 8 a.m., to 6 p.m., each work day, according to Lyles. Employees will also only be allowed half-hour lunch breaks, according to the district's statement.

The scheduling change means school system employees will be working 38 hours per week this summer, which is two hours less than the traditional 40-hour work week in place during the rest of the school year.

"Our decision to implement a four-day summer schedule is in keeping with a practice established a number of years ago as a way of reducing energy expenditures," Clayton County Schools Interim Superintendent Valya Lee said in the district's written statement.

The 2009-2010 school year is scheduled to begin on Aug. 10.