Next year, school will end earlier for Nampa elementary school students.

And probably for Nampa high school students as well.

The Nampa School Board voted last week on a new, and shortened, elementary bell schedule. The unanimous vote came a year after Nampa adopted a four-day school week, and amidst widespread criticism of the elementary schedule.

Next year, kindergartners through fifth-grade students will get out for the day at 4:03 p.m., as opposed to 4:21 p.m.

The start time will remain at 8:51 a.m.

Whenever a district adopts a four-day schedule, the move translates into fewer, but longer, school days. And Nampa administrators and trustees acknowledged that the elementary schedule was unpopular with parents.

The new schedule will shorten the school day by 18 minutes — and over the course of the year, that means 45 fewer hours in the classroom. And deputy superintendent Waylon Yarbrough said there’s no way to know whether that will affect student performance.

“The hard reality is we don’t know until we go through it,” he told trustees.

Trustees were willing to make the move — with board chair Jeff Kirkman noting that the time would be carved out of the end of a long day in the classroom. “What really happens in the last 18 minutes of the class?”

Trustee Stephanie Binns said Nampa has a lot of flexibility within its schedule. Even with the reduction, Nampa elementary students will spend 979.5 hours in the classroom. The state requires 900 hours.

Nampa has historically scheduled longer elementary school days, to provide some catch-up time for students from low-income households, Superintendent Gregg Russell said. He said he thinks teachers will be able to adjust to the reduced classroom hours — although he added Nampa could revisit the issue if test scores stagnate next year.

“More time does not mean you’re going to be more successful,” Russell told trustees.

The board did not decide on a bell schedule for middle schools and high schools, at least not formally. But grade school and secondary school schedules are closely tied together, because the schools share buses. Consequently, Nampa will probably wind up moving up the final bell in middle school and high school.

Currently, secondary students begin their day at 7:30 a.m., and get out at 3:36 p.m.

More reading: Link to our recent, in-depth coverage of four-day schools.