SANDPOINT — High school students in the Lake Pend Oreille School District will be happy to know that, starting next semester, they get to go home an hour earlier every Wednesday.

The staff, however, will stay in school and use the hour to develop a "professional learning community" — a collaboration of staff in an effort to better serve the students they teach.

"We have a move here from an interest in collaboration, an interest in professional learning communities, to a commitment," said Sandpoint High School Principal Tom Albertson. 

Albertson, along with principals from Lake Pend Oreille High School and Clark Fork High School — Geoff Penrose and Phil Kemink respectively — presented the request to LPOSD trustees during Tuesday's board meeting.

Albertson said the PLC model will include a district-wide focus on four questions. The first, "What do we want students to know?" focuses on curriculum, standards and learning targets. The second, "How do we know they have learned?" focuses on checking for understanding, common formative assessments, and summative assessments. "What do we do if a student does not understand?" is a focus on interventions and, finally, "What do we do if a student does understand?" focuses on enrichment.

The PLC model includes several steps for success, a couple of which Albertson highlighted for the board. The first, he said, is the "fundamental purpose of any school is to ensure that all students learn at high levels — not just some students, but all students." Also, Albertson said, educators must work collaboratively and take a collective responsibility for the success of each student.

"We need time to do curriculum work, we need time to make sure our pacing guides are in alignment, we need to make sure that we are teaching to the standards and that we have common learning targets across all teachers," Albertson said.

At SHS, Albertson said the staff currently has 58 minutes once a month for collaboration, which is not adequate to ensure all staff are on the same page. Kemink and Penrose agreed the PLC model and having the extra time for collaboration would help staff better teach the students.

Letting the high school students out an hour early will align with the middle school and elementary schools in the district as well, Penrose said, as those schools already practice early release on Wednesdays.

To make up some of the hours the students will not be in class, Albertson requested SHS get rid of the finals schedule at the end of the year and, instead, have regular school days on June 5 and 7.

LPOSD trustees unanimously approved the schedule changes, which will go into effect Jan. 31, 2018.

Mary Malone can be reached by email at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.