3:55 p.m. - Killdeer school superintendent Gary Wilz was busy Wednesday getting a five-day school schedule ready for next fall, like every other K-12 district in the state.

Wednesday, the Department of Public Instruction issued a second and final denial of the school's application to have a four-day schedule for the 2006-07 school year.

Killdeer wanted to go to four longer school days and use Fridays for tutoring and other school clubs and activities.

Anita Decker, who heads DPI's accreditation department, said the school failed to convince state educators that a four-day week would be a better learning environment for students.

Killdeer had asked for formal reconsideration when its initial application was denied last month. The department said the four-day week would have burdened parents - particularly low-income parents - to transport their children to tutoring on Fridays and provide lunch, since neither busing nor hot-lunch services would have been offered that day.

Decker said one of the main problems the school was trying to solve was high school absenteeism on Friday because of extracurricular activities. The solution would have impacted the entire school system, she said. "There are many other things they could have done first," including limiting participation, she said.

She also said national education trends are leading to more, not less, teacher-student time to better prepare students for college and post-secondary experiences.

"This is a mismatch," Decker said. "Teaching longer (in a day) is not the same as teaching better. That issue needs to be addressed."

Richard Regeth, a Killdeer school parent who was opposed to the four-day school week, said the department's decision is good news.

Regeth said the community did not support the change, partly because the school board never articulated a coherent reason for wanting to make it.

The school board hoped to be able to have four-day school for two consecutive years and then survey the community for advice on whether to continue.

Regeth said the absence of a reason to make the change led to a lot of suspicion. Regeth said the issue has upset the community and he expects it will take time for relationships to get back to normal, "if it ever does."

Wilz said the school board would put the issue aside for now and concentrate on a five-day schedule and getting a quality job done for students like it always has.

He said the decision took the wind out of the school's sails, as it did for other schools watching to see Killdeer's fate before possibly making the change as well.

Wilz said Killdeer stuck its neck out, but encountered a North Dakota conservatism and resistance to change.

The board was partly convinced to make its application based on the success it's found in some South Dakota schools, where the four-day week appears to have improved academic scoring and morale.

Decker said both decisions against Killdeer were difficult and were made by a team of very experienced educators. The application lacked a baseline assessment of school data and goals, according to the letter of denial issued by State School Superintendent Wayne Sanstead.

Decker said the review team is not opposed to the concept of a four-day week and has approved it for the second year for the Almont Elementary School.

"There needs to be a good reason to do it and it needs to be good for kids," she said.

(Reach reporter Lauren Donovan at 1-888-303-5511, or lauren@westriv.com.)