MESQUITE, Texas - Mesquite ISD is the latest district, and one of the largest ones, to consider moving to a four-day school week.

A vote is scheduled for next month.

It would go into effect next school year if approved.

The district hopes it’ll help with combating what it calls an "extreme" teacher shortage.

We’ve already seen some smaller districts in North Texas adopting or considering a four-day week.

The plan is still under consideration in Mesquite, as the district gathers feedback from parents and teachers.

Student’s getting out of school on Friday could be a thing of the past in Mesquite.

READ MORE: Anna, Terrell ISDs switch to a 4-day school week

"Mesquite ISD is working to address the struggle we are facing in an extreme teacher shortage and the resulting impacts on students, including unfilled teaching positions, hiring a large number of non-certified teachers, larger class sizes, less teacher planning time, etc," the district said in a post.

The district's Board of Trustees is expected to vote on the 4-day instructional week for the next school year no later than March 6.

"To be honest, I’m pretty excited about it. I mean, we could all use the extra day as far as being busy and stuff like that," Mesquite ISD staff member and parent Andre McGilvery said.

Although he likes the plan, he knows others might have concerns.

"Some of the parents, they don’t have proper babysitters, certain situations and they might need kids to come on a Friday," McGilvery added.

But other parents, initially hesitant, have come around..

"My oldest daughter, she’s a junior at the high school, and she’s in like dual-credit and drill team, so that will benefit her as well, because with dual-credit, they have extra homework," Sherice Lemon said.

The district said the move is aimed at battling the teacher shortage.

It started the school year with 108 open positions, and believes giving teachers more planning will help both teachers and students.

The Mesquite ISD Board discussed the proposal this week, including a recent survey of staff and parents.

The district’s survey found 78% of parents and 90% of staff agree that a four-day week would impact their family in a positive manner.

"On a personal note, I am in agreement with the four-day work week calendar," Mesquite Education Association President Kimberly Davis said. "I can now schedule doctor appointments for those days and I do not have to take off and run the risk of a colleague having to cover my class because there aren’t enough substitutes."

The district has gathered data from other districts that have moved to four days

"The district that has done it for at least three years, they have seen an increase in student achievement, being Athens ISD," Mesquite ISD Superintendent Dr. Ángel Rivera.

Some parents are still skeptical of whether it will work in a larger district.

"I worry about the decline of academic performance in lower income schools because no other large district has done this," one parent said. "I don’t want our kids to be a guinea pig."

Other, smaller districts have used the model.

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A new Mesquite, Texas, business park has landed a major tenant, bringing more than 200 jobs. Illinois-based RJW Logistics Group is taking almost 600,000 square feet of space in the new Alcott Logistics Station industrial project on East Scyene Road.

The national logistics company is the first big business to land in the $130 million Alcott Logistics Station, a project of Urban Logistics Realty. The new shipping hub will expand RJW Logistics’ distribution footprint to almost 6 million square feet.

“Establishing an operational hub in Dallas supports our ability to more effectively meet the needs of our existing customer base and onboard new consumer packaged goods suppliers in a growing region,” Kevin Williamson, RJW Logistics’ CEO, said in a statement. “Centralized warehousing is a game changer for suppliers.”

“They win by reducing costs and inventory hold, while gaining efficiencies and improving scorecard performance,” he said. “We use sophisticated data and technology systems to determine which of our two regional hubs is most advantageous and cost effective for the supplier.”

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The company currently serves its customers from nine consolidation warehouses in the central U.S. RJW provides transportation and warehousing services for major retailers including Walmart, Sam’s Club, Aldi, Kroger, Amazon and Walgreens. The new Mesquite operations will have about 225 employees.

Urban Logistics plans to ship more than 36 million cases a year out of the new distribution hub, which will serve 200 of its clients.

Alcott Logistics Station is Urban Logistics Realty’s second major Mesquite project and one of the largest in the city. More than 2 million square feet of warehouse and shipping facilities are planned in the project.

Urban Logistics Realty also built the Urban District 30 industrial park, a five-building, 980,000-square-foot industrial project near Interstate 30 in Mesquite. The developer sold the first phase of the project to New York-based investor KKR.

Mesquite has been one of North Texas’ fastest growing warehouse markets as developers have migrated east of Dallas to find new industrial building sites. Dallas-Fort Worth is the country’s fastest growing industrial market with more than 80 million square feet of buildings on the way.

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Houston Elementary School in the Mineral Wells Independent School District started the school year in a position that made school leaders everywhere jealous.

“We started the year without any openings, which in this day and age is a big deal," said Jacy Roach in an interview at the beginning of the school year.

More than 40 school districts around Texas have switched to 4-day weeks; the schools offering this are having a much easier time keeping their teachers in the classroom.

It’s mostly worked in rural areas but has crept into the suburbs. Mesquite ISD announced a plan in February to possibly do the same thing.

The district said their superintendent ultimately decided against the plan, parents had expressed concern about child care. In an episode of "Soup with the Superintendent," last year, Mesquite ISD’s new leader told us how hard it was to compete for teachers.

New Mesquite ISD Superintendent Angel Rivera joins NBC 5’s Wayne Carter for lunch to share his plan for the district.

“Our biggest challenge is teacher compensation. I felt like all the superintendents were playing chess. Who's going to unveil their compensation package first so I can one-up them?" said Angel Rivera, Superintendent of the Mesquite ISD.

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There’s always the concern about how parents of young children could work and have their kids home while they’re at work. Mesquite surveyed parents and talked about opening one school for parents who needed sitters, something they’ve done in Mineral Wells.

But Mesquite ISD’s survey showed a majority of parents said they wouldn’t need it.

Mesquite ISD's school board will discuss moving to a four-day school week. NBC 5 Education Reporter Wayne Carter reports the district says the move is necessary to keep teachers from moving to districts that have already made the switch.

Still, it’s opened the door to discussions of the steps districts are taking to try to keep teachers, even at the expense of inconveniencing parents.

"When teachers tell you they're burned out they're tired what that is code for is I'm being asked to do everything and then I' 'm being paid whatever I'm being paid," said HD Chambers, of the Texas School Alliance, a group that represents some of the largest school districts in Texas.

Chambers said it's not just money, but all of the pressure we put on teachers, and schools have to try to alleviate it.

Little Elm ISD tried to move to a 4-day week as well and like Mesquite parents weren’t happy with the idea so they moved away from it. They still are struggling to fill open positions and are going back to the drawing board.

Another new master-planned community from a prominent local developer is set to bring thousands of homes to Mesquite, furthering the Dallas-Fort Worth area’s eastward growth.

The Nehemiah Co. recently broke ground on Talia, which will include 2,500 new homes on about 600 acres along FM2757, south of Interstate 20, the company said Friday. Presales are expected to begin by the end of this year.

Builders will include Cadence Homes, Chesmar Homes, David Weekley Homes, Drees Custom Homes and Highland Homes. Town homes will be included in the project.

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The master plan for Talia will include pocket parks, miles of trails and a community lake. An amenities center will include a resort-style pool.

“We want Talia to be a unique community where families can thrive holistically, " said Robert Kembel, president of the Nehemiah Co. “We envision Talia to be a place where residents can renew each day, flourish and experience kindness, grace and joy through connection to this place and the people in it.”

The homes will be in the Forney Independent School District.

Talia continues the growth of Mesquite’s southeastern sector. In 2021, Huffines Communities broke ground on Solterra, a roughly 1,500-acre community expected to add more than 3,000 homes on land along East Cartwright Road that sat vacant for decades.

The Nehemiah Co. is the same company behind the 2,000-acre Viridian master-planned community in Arlington. It also is developing Karis, a 565-acre community in Crowley just south of Fort Worth. The company recently started sales in that community.

“Karis and Talia comprise the best in class for master-planned communities,” Kembel said. “With the closeout of Viridian, where our design standards were first introduced, we have been able to show the market something unique and more focused on the lives of those wanting a community with connection.”

Nehemiah is also working on a luxury apartment community in Arlington called Arlington Commons.

Mesquite school leaders backed away from a proposal to move to a four-day week.

The district was among the largest in Texas to consider cutting down the academic week in an effort to recruit and retain more teachers. The choice has so far mostly been limited to small and rural districts.

The “extreme teacher shortage” in Mesquite ISD can lead to unfilled positions, a large number of uncertified educators and larger class sizes, according to a district webpage explaining why they considered the switch to a shorter school week.

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But community members raised concerns about how closing schools to students each Friday would impact those who rely on campuses for meals. They worried about child care challenges that could lead to students being unsupervised. More than 38,000 students are enrolled in Mesquite schools.

Based on concerns about the negative impact on learning, Superintendent Ángel Rivera told the board he will not recommend a four-day instructional week, according to spokeswoman Brenda Gonzalez.

A new proposed calendar will be brought to the trustees Monday evening. The administration wants to extend the school day by 15 minutes to allow for extra breaks during the school year and enable the district to finish the year before Memorial Day.

“The new draft calendar will seek to address the issues of teacher workload, planning time, professional learning and work-life balance,” Gonzalez said in a statement.

About 40 Texas districts are on a four-day week, with more than a dozen launching the schedule this school year, according to estimates from the Texas Classroom Teachers Association.

Anna and Terrell ISDs recently adopted the four-day instructional week for next academic year.

Staff writer Valeria Olivares contributed to this article.

The DMN Education Lab deepens the coverage and conversation about urgent education issues critical to the future of North Texas.

The DMN Education Lab is a community-funded journalism initiative, with support from Bobby and Lottye Lyle, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Garrett and Cecilia Boone, The Meadows Foundation, The Murrell Foundation, Solutions Journalism Network, Southern Methodist University, Sydney Smith Hicks and the University of Texas at Dallas. The Dallas Morning News retains full editorial control of the Education Lab’s journalism.