As of Feb. 24, students at Lincoln Elementary School will be dismissed give minutes later each day until the end of the year to make up for the instructional time lost when the school was closed Dec. 17 due to a police investigation that included school grounds.

State law allows for one day of lost instructional time due to emergencies to not be made up, but the Feb. 10 closure due to a bomb threat, was the second day for Lincoln.

GFPS, Catholic schools closed Feb. 10

The second closure would cause Lincoln to fall below the required 1,080 hours of instructional time, according to Superintendent Tom Moore.

GFPD searching for person of interest in school bomb threat

Moore informed the school board of the scheduled change during a special meeting last week and a letter was also sent to Lincoln families and posted to the school’s Facebook page.

GFPD, other agencies investigating triple homicide; Lincoln Elementary closed today due to proximity of incident

For the remainder of the school year, Lincoln students will be dismissed at 3:25 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. On Wednesdays, they’ll be dismissed at 2:45 p.m.

For the early out days at the end of the quarter on March 27 and June 5, students will be dismissed at 12:25 p.m.

All 21 Great Falls Public Schools, and many area private schools, closed Feb. 10 due to a bomb threat to allow law enforcement officials to sweep all public schools.

“Obviously, the immediate concerns where for the safety of our students, staff and the community. The loss of an instructional day to our students and teachers was a significant interruption and an emergency closure of schools has accreditation and fiscal implications for school districts,” Moore wrote in his report to the school board.

No other public school is changing their schedule due to the lost instruction time.

Jenn Rowell

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