Lincoln School Board is planning its own field trip next Wednesday to visit two Montana school districts that switched to a four-day school week, Alberton and Victor.

Tuesday night the school board and parents questioned Alberton School Superintendent Jim Baldwin during a board work session about how the switch worked in that district.

Despite 6 inches of fresh snow that day and hazardous roads, 45 parents attended the evening meeting in Lincoln, said Lincoln School Superintendent Kathy Heisler.

"The board was on a fact-finding mission to find out what the community thought about a four-day week, she said of the session.

So far, what the board's heard has it pursuing the idea further.

Although the school board first began investigating the four-day school week as a cost-savings measure, its primary concern is maintaining academic quality, said Lincoln School Board Chairman Ken Lumpkin.

"The spark was that with declining enrollment, we're receiving less state aid," he explained. "So that puts more pressure on local taxpayers.

The school district doesn't have a big revenue base, he said.

"The stopper would be if (we learned of) anything to do with academics suffering."

So far, the districts that Lincoln School Board spoke with report positive results from shortening the school week, said both Heisler and Lumpkin.

Student achievement scores in Victor went up, Heisler said.

Some of this is credited to longer concentration on topics in class, said Lumpkin.

In Alberton, 68 percent of the student body is on the honor roll," said Heisler. That district uses the last period of the day for a supervised in-school study hall, so students complete more homework at school.

The biggest issue in Alberton against switching was how to provide day care for small children on Friday, when the schools are closed and many parents work, said Heisler.

However, parents have been able to work out day care coverage, according to Baldwin.

Initially, the district was going to offer a day care plan with a local church but found it wasn't necessary, he said in an earlier interview with the Independent Record.

"A lot of small, rural schools have gone to a four-day school week," said Lumpkin. "It's been a topic in Lincoln for a number of years but was never pursued until this year."

While Alberton hopes to realize $50,000 in cost savings in utilities and transportation costs, cost savings "will not make or break" the decision in Lincoln.

"It's not enough to sway the district one way or the other," said Lumpkin.

Another issue raised is a longer school day for young students, particularly kindergarten students.

Alberton School added a rest period for younger students and will likely implement an afternoon snack program, Lumpkin said.

So far, Lincoln parents have been open to learning more about the four-day week, said Heisler.

Lincoln school board sent out an initial survey to get parents' "knee jerk" reactions to the idea, said Lumpkin. "It helped identify issues for the board to follow up on.

"We want to go gather as much information as we can, as fast as we can and give it out to the community to evaluate it."

The school board will plan another community work session and will do a follow-up survey of parents, he said.

"In the end, the community decides if it's something they would want to have here in Lincoln."

The board has not narrowed down what day of the week the school would close, said Heisler. Some parents have suggested Fridays, others Mondays, and some suggest rotating between Monday and Friday.

If approved, the shortened school week would not go into effect until next school year.

The proposed school day would run from 8 a.m. to 4:15 p.m., instead of the current 8:15 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. The school calendar would run from Aug. 25 to June 3.

Students would still receive 1,080 hours of classroom instruction as required by the state Office of Public Instruction.

Reporter Marga Lincoln: 447-4074 or marga.lincoln@helenair.com