Terrell ISD's Four-Day Week: What to Actually Do With Friday
Terrell ISD started August 3 this year and is running a four-day week, Monday through Thursday, for another year. Longer school days, and every Friday off.
Parents who’ve been through a year of it will tell you the same thing: the four-day week is great once you have a Friday plan, and rough until you do. August is when you build it.
The Actual Problem
Most jobs are still five days. So for a large share of Terrell families, the four-day week converts one school day into one childcare day — 36-ish times a year. That’s more days than all the holiday breaks combined.
The households that make it work tend to land on one of four setups:
1. Split it with another family. Two families alternate Fridays. Cheapest option, and it works well when the kids are close in age. Fragile when somebody’s kid gets sick.
2. One parent shifts to a four-day work schedule. Increasingly common, especially in trades and healthcare where compressed weeks already exist. If your employer offers it, Fridays off is worth more than it looks on paper.
3. Friday programming. Some churches, gyms, and enrichment programs in Kaufman County have specifically added Friday blocks to meet this demand. Worth calling around — the options have grown a lot since Terrell went four-day.
4. Grandparents. Widely used, rarely acknowledged in district planning documents.
The Upside Nobody Mentions in August
By October, most Terrell families report the same thing: Friday becomes the day everything gets done. Doctor and dentist appointments that used to mean pulling a kid out of class. Oil changes. The DMV. Errands that would otherwise eat Saturday.
That’s the real trade. You lose a school day and gain back most of your weekend.
Where the Gym Fits
This is the part we can speak to directly, because we see it every Friday.
We’re open 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Fridays at 127 E US Highway 80 in Forney — about 20 minutes west of Terrell straight down US-80.
The Kids Zone runs Friday 8 a.m.–1 p.m. and 4–8 p.m., ages 1–11, up to two hours per child per day. On a normal Friday during the school year, it is the quietest it gets all week — which for a lot of Terrell parents means a Friday morning workout with the kids supervised is genuinely available in a way it isn’t on Saturday.
The Kids Zone is a supervised play area for parents exercising at TX Fitness — not a licensed child-care facility, and not regulated by the State of Texas. A parent or responsible adult has to be exercising or using the facility on-site and remain in the club the entire time.
Two hours per child per day is a real limit, so this isn’t a Friday childcare solution. It’s a workout solution for a Friday you already have to be home for.
A Realistic Terrell Friday
Something like this works for a lot of families:
- 8:00 — drive to Forney, kids into the Kids Zone
- 8:15–9:30 — lift or run
- 9:45 — errands on the 80 corridor while you’re already out here
- Afternoon — the thing your kid actually wants to do
If you’re going to make the drive anyway, stacking it with the shopping on this side of Forney turns a 40-minute round trip into an efficient morning rather than a chore.
The Longer School Day
Don’t underestimate this part. Four-day weeks mean longer Monday–Thursday days, and by Wednesday afternoon a lot of elementary-age kids are cooked. If your kid also has weeknight practice, Monday through Thursday is dense.
Which is an argument for putting your own training in the morning. Weekday evenings in a four-day-week household are tighter than in a five-day one, not looser.
What It Costs
An adult membership is $19 every two weeks. Adding a kid is $12 every two weeks per child on a family plan — one adult plus one kid is $31, one adult plus two or more is $43, and no family plan carries an annual fee. Two kids or five, same price.
There’s also a 7-day free trial, no card required, if you want to test whether the drive from Terrell is worth it before committing. More on the route and what’s here on our Terrell page.
Where We Are
127 E US Highway 80, Forney, TX 75126 — south side of the highway. Open 5 a.m.–11 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 5 a.m.–10 p.m. Friday, 6 a.m.–9 p.m. weekends.
Questions? Call (972) 564-0909.
Terrell ISD calendar details compiled August 2026 from the district’s published 2026-27 calendar. Verify at terrellisd.org.