POST FALLS - Post Falls students would start their school week 25 minutes later starting in the fall to allow for more staff planning time under a proposal being considered by the school board.

The board will discuss the "late-start Mondays" proposal on Monday at 6 p.m. at Post Falls City Hall, 408 N. Spokane St.

Mondays would be the only days affected and all schools would start 25 minutes later.

"The earliest we would ask the board to take action would be during the May board meeting," said Superintendent Jerry Keane. "We will be seeking input this month and studying the proposal further.

"We are considering Mondays because there are several Mondays during the school year that we do not have school because of holidays."

The proposal includes adding two instructional days to next school year to make up for the lost classroom time on Monday mornings and the district providing free before-school child care at elementary schools for the 25 minutes if families need it. Buses would pick students up 25 minutes later on Mondays.

"It is a great idea," said Dena Naccarato, Post Falls High principal. "It will provide us with consistent, built-in collaborative time that we desperately need. Not only will teachers have the opportunity work within departments on things like curriculum, instructional strategies, integration of the common core standards ... , but they will also have the opportunity to work within grade levels."

Prairie View Elementary Principal Colleen Kelsey also supports the plan.

"As a profession, we are required to learn and implement all kinds of curricular and instructional changes throughout the year," Kelsey said. "During the school day our focus and energy is always on the students. But new changes require time, training and discussion - something we don't have on a regular basis in every building.

"Asking staff to learn and implement the things we are being asked to do is kind of like asking a pilot to repair his plane while it's in mid-air or a doctor to learn a new surgical technique in the middle of surgery. It can be done, but not very well."

Keane said the district would need to expand the staff to handle additional numbers of elementary children that may come for the 25 minutes. The district already provides a fee-based before- and after-school care program called GAP for elementary families who need it.

Keane said the cost for additional staff vs. the benefits of additional staff planning time would need to be considered before the plan is implemented, but the district doesn't expect a large number of additional kids beyond what is already enrolled in GAP.

"However, we would need to be prepared for a considerable number of students just in case," he said.

Coeur d'Alene went to a late-start Monday format in 2010 for the same reason and didn't experience a big jump in additional families needing the child care on Monday mornings. Some other districts have also tweaked their schedules to allow for more staff collaboration.

Keane said principals and teachers have tried to find more time for school and district teams to meet for planning purposes such as on curriculum and instructional changes, regarding new educational initiatives and to discuss strategies to help individual students.

"We have provided some time within the existing schedules, but the total amount of planning time has been either too short or too inconsistent and instructional change that we have hoped to see," Keane said.

Generally, teachers only meet during in-service days and before and after school for such purposes. Teachers are required to arrive at least 25 minutes before the start of class, and the additional 25 minutes would create 50 minutes of teacher training and collaboration.

Keane said the plan is in response to principal and staff requests, not from the district administration. Principals are discussing the proposal with their staffs.

Keane said he plans to present the proposal to the district's parent advisory group on Monday. The district plans to provide information in its parent communications and to parent organizations at all schools.

"We are just now getting going on the parent communication," Keane said.

The district may have an open forum, but nothing is scheduled.

Coeur d'Alene is in its second year of "late start Mondays" in which school starts one hour later than other days. The time is made up by adding an hour throughout the rest of the week. The district charges a nominal fee for child care for families who need it on Monday mornings or offers scholarships to those who can't afford it.

"We have surveyed parents since the inception of late start Mondays and most have adapted to the schedule and are supportive of its purpose," said Laura Rumpler, school district spokeswoman. "We've received feedback that parents actually enjoy having extra time on Monday mornings to transition their families from the weekend."

She said the district is also seeing the positive impact collaboration has had on test scores and data on instructional effectiveness.

"Collaboration has given our teachers time to work with their professional peers to develop more cohesiveness and a common framework for improving teaching and learning," Rumpler said. "Teachers come together, sometimes by grade level, subject area or schoolwide to dive into analyzing student achievement data and developing targeted goals for student achievement."