POST FALLS - The Post Falls School Board is expected to postpone a decision on a proposal to start school 25 minutes later on Mondays until its June 11 meeting to allow for more input.

Superintendent Jerry Keane will make the postpone recommendation during tonight's board meeting at City Hall at 6 p.m.

He said the district has received about 40 emails from parents on the plan with about half in support and half indicating they'd be inconvenienced by the proposed new schedule that would take effect in the fall.

Keane said teachers and parent groups overall are in support of the proposal, which is intended to provide a more consistent time for teacher training and collaboration.

"However, it is important that we fully take into account how the proposal may affect family schedules," he said.

Comments can be emailed to [email protected].

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

The district is considering Mondays because there are several Mondays during the school year in which there is no 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.

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 needs to be considered, but the district doesn't expect a large number of additional kids beyond what is already enrolled in GAP. However, the district would need to be prepared for a large increase just in case, he said.

Keane said there's some confusion regarding total class instruction time.

"The plan does not necessarily reduce total instructional time," he said. "The bulk of the 25 minutes will be made up by not having students out of school on existing in-service days."

For example, in previous years there was a day in February that students did not attend class due to teacher training.

"That day will now have students in attendance," Keane 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.

"The reason our proposal is only 25 minutes (compared to more time for some other districts) was as a result of an effort to minimize the impact of family schedules," Keane said.

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.

But the total amount of planning time has been either too short or too inconsistent, he 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.

Because of the timeline, the proposal will not be tweaked, Keane said.

"If there is a need for significant revision, we would need to take more time and reconsider a different proposal for the 2013-14 school year," he said.

How to comment

n Comments on the Post Falls School District's proposal to start school 25 minutes later than usual on Mondays during the next school year can be emailed to [email protected].