Rainier schools to shift to a four-day week

Published 5:00 am Friday, June 13, 2025

As the 2024-25 school year comes to a close, students in Rainier are saying goodbye to class on Fridays.

Starting next school year, schools in the Rainier School District will join a growing number of educational institutions in Oregon with a four-day school week.

As reported by Julia Hird with The Rainier Times, the school district’s student news publication, students will attend classes Monday through Thursday and have Fridays off. To offset the shorter week, school days will be extended by less than an hour. Summer break will also be shorter, with students returning to school earlier and finishing the year later.

According to a study conducted by Oregon State University researchers, more than 80 school districts in Oregon operated on a four-day schedule as of 2022. The shift is generally made for financial reasons, especially in rural districts.

A survey conducted by the Rainier School District found that the majority of its students, staff and community members supported the four-day weekly schedule, citing longer weekends as a primary benefit to the switch.

Conversely, those surveyed identified longer school days as their primary concern, followed by concerns about how the change could impact child care needs.