Kalispell Public Schools will continue dismissing students two hours early on Wednesdays for the remainder of the school year.

The school district implemented the early dismissals in response to increased workloads of staff caused by the COVID-19 pandemic such as supporting students or covering for colleagues in quarantine.

The early outs have been met with approval from parents and staff who responded to a recent school district survey. Kalispell Public Schools Superintendent Micah Hill presented the survey results at a school board meeting Tuesday.

The survey garnered 2,268 responses from families and 314 from staff members.

Out of the families who responded, 78.8% said they would support early releases for the rest of the school year, with 21.2% saying “no.” Teachers overwhelmingly favored the continuation of early releases with 95.2% in support.

Seventy-three percent of family respondents said the early release did not inconvenience their family, while 27% said it did.

Hill said it was important to know how the early dismissals were causing inconveniences and included the question in the survey. Respondents were able to select more than one answer. With 69.6% responding “no inconvenience,” the top three responses were: taking time off work (18.1%), transportation (16.1%) and childcare (12.6%).

In response to that, Hill said there has been discussion about expanding the after-school program.

“Currently we have an after-school program through Parks and Rec at Elrod [Elementary] and we’re talking with them about expanding that to Russell [Elementary],” Hill said.

While it may result in an added transportation cost, he said, “I think it’s important that we’re also responsive to our parents that this has created a hardship for, in trying to find ways to work with them in that.”

“The intent is not to create more hardships, but opportunities, so we’re working on that as well,” Hill said.

The majority of teacher respondents found the additional two hours valuable, with 93.9% saying it provided the time needed to manage their workloads.

Teachers spent the time in different ways: grading, creating lesson plans and videos, cleaning, uploading lessons, collaborating with colleagues and meeting with parents/students.

While valuable for teachers, early dismissals does mean lost instructional time in the classroom each week. However, about 41.4% of respondents rated their level of concern to be low, at a one on a scale of five; 28.7% rated their concern at a two; 18.8% rated it at a three and the remainder at a four or five.

“There was a lot of concern, especially coming out of special education, you know, just for that lost instructional time,” Hill said. “Over time, it adds up and so you’re really trying to weigh the benefit of perhaps lost instructional time versus the ability to continue to perform at an optimal level for the teacher.”

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.