This period of decreased funds has challenged greater learning opportunities for many schools. District administrators have been discussing time change. Various ideas of changing school operation hours have been considered by district administrators. An administrative meeting in February will bring up the topic of time change.

"All kids don’t fit the same mode," Superintendent John Morton said.

With a district the size of USD 373, elementary schools could have one schedule and middle and high schools could develop an alternate schedule.

"We want more flexibility for teachers and students," Morton said.

From an economic standpoint, saving money and conserving energy can work hand in hand. Eliminating summer school and using buildings more efficiently during the summer presents new ways to conserve energy.

"We’re limited by a lot of things externally," Morton said.

Morton wants differentiated schedules to be much more individualized. Those teachers that have younger children could start school later in the day if the school day was extended.

"We would also need to extend our latchkey hours," Morton said.

If the district developed four-day weeks, it would save money by decreasing transportation costs.

"If we kept the current 1,116 hours minimum, it would mean a longer day each day," Morton said. "Or it could mean a longer school year if we kept the same time frame we have now."

Extending the school day also triggers some conflict. Many junior varsity and middle school games are played in facilities with no lights, so they are played in daylight hours. The district is also in a league with 26 schools for athletic and extra-curricular activities.

"Those kinds of schedules affect a significant number of kids," principal Ken Rickard said. "(Extending the school day) has an impact on everything else in every other building in the district."

As far as financial impact goes, time change would hardly impact the district since transportation, food, building management and the number of teachers would remain static.

"If we could work internally, then it might not cost extra," Morton said.

Rickard said the black-day-gold-day block scheduling has been around since he began working at NHS. He has had faculty, the site council and parents look at schedules and the use of time.

"You may have one teacher think (the schedule) is great, but have another teacher think it should be done a different way," Rickard said. "I think it’s good to have questions."

The board of education could discuss and go through various meetings in order to have administrators, teachers, parents and students involved in a time change.

"Right now, we’re going to talk about the whole time issue. Tradition would be a main conflict," Morton said. "This is the way we’ve always done it, so we need to maximize things for everyone. What kind of things can we all do to maximize things?"