Pupils could be taught online one day a week to allow schools to cope with their rising heating bills, a council has suggested.
Wearing coats in class and leaving staff posts vacant are also among the potential cost-saving measures sent in a briefing to school leaders in Powys.
To deal with a financial crisis, every option must be considered, said the county cabinet member for education.
How the savings are made is up to each school.
Powys Education Cabinet Member Pete Roberts told a council meeting that school budgets were being examined “in detail” for “possible solutions”.
“We have suggested the possibility of a four-day week,” Roberts said, “with a fifth day being taught virtually, and blended study weeks as extreme cases to consider.”
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However, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the school did not receive “clear direction,” he stressed.
“Ultimately, it is the decision and responsibility of the principal and his chair of governors in relation to the school budget,” he said, “and one size doesn’t fit all.”
Schools have been instructed to draw up plans explaining how they will proceed with the children’s education, he said, and must consider “all eventualities”.
Online learning could “reduce schools’ operational costs and result in significant savings,” Roberts said.
Wearing coats in classrooms, he added, is something students are already doing.
“In some cases over the last two winters, some children have had to wear their coats in their classrooms because the windows were open as part of Covid guidelines,” he said, “not because the school could not afford to pay for the heating.” Invoice.
“As Covid increases, this situation is likely to occur again this winter.”
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