Earlier ‘Late Shift’ Ahead Double Shift To End Hour Earlier At Middle School Next Year

Post Falls mom Linda Seed is happy about the school board’s decision to roll back the afternoon shift at the middle school one hour - she just wishes it would have happened a year ago.

Seed is the mother of a seventh-grader in the afternoon shift who doesn’t get home most days until 9 p.m. because of after-school sports.

“It’s been really difficult as far as family life,” said Seed, whose daughter will be in the morning shift next year.

Dinner time in many Post Falls homes will be a bit earlier after the school board voted Monday to end the afternoon shift at 4:50 p.m. next fall, instead of 5:48 p.m.

The district began double-shifting in September to ease overcrowding at the middle school. The first shift begins at 7 a.m. and ends at 12:18 p.m. The second shift begins at 12:30. Under the new plan, second-shifters will start at 11:31 a.m.

Two months after the program began, 13-year-old Nick Scherling was hit and killed by an alleged drunken driver while he was walking home in the dark after the second shift.

Ending the afternoon shift an hour earlier will ease some safety concerns, Assistant Superintendent Jerry Keane said.

“The earlier we can get kids out of school, the better it’s going to be,” Keane said.

The schedule change will also mean all 900 middle school students will be in the building at the same time, forcing administrators to use every available space in the building and rent an additional portable classroom unit, he said.

In other business, the board approved a before- and after-school day-care program at Seltice Elementary School. The program, modeled after Coeur d’Alene’s School PLUS, will cost about $125 a month for before- and after-school care. So far, 24 students are expected to enroll this fall, Keane said.

The board also OK’d the expansion of the year-round school pilot program at Prairie View Elementary School. Students from Seltice and Ponderosa Elementary Schools will now be allowed to attend the program on a space-available basis.